A Hundred Drops of Rain
by Maiga Ryu
Summary: An Ichigo Rukia Drabble Collection. Moments of their lives, and of each other.
1. Misunderstanding the Simple

Yes, yes, another collection of Bleach Drabbles. While I am not a Livejournal user, I haunt them anyway, because IchiRuki goodness can't be passed up. So for a Personal Writing Challenge, I've taken the 100 themes from the IchixRuki Community and decided that I'll write an IchigoxRukia drabble for _each one_. So there'll be 100 short drabble chapters when I'm done. Each will be an Ichi Ruki pairing, but some may be about different aspects of their relationship, or from some one else's perspective.

**There may also be mentions of Yaoi.** Being the Rabid Yaoi fan girl that I am, there may be some, even with the pairing always being Ichigo Rukia. But I am a devote IchiRuki fan as well, it being one of the six boy/girl pairings I fully support, so never fear, there wont be to much.

If anyone there at Livejournal IchiRuki gets mad and wants me to take this down, just leave me a review and I will do so promptly. Just please don't be rude – I don't mean to offend anyone by any of this so there is no need to be mean.

-Maigaryu

**13.** Permanent Hiatus  
**Title:** Misunderstanding the Simple  
**Word count:** 234  
**Rating:** PG

When Ichigo walked away from Soul Society without a backwards glance, he could never understand how everyone else could think he was crazy. Really, after all the crazy shit that had happened (he only understood half of it, after all, why would he care about some Aizen weirdo when he knew _enough_ strange people as it was?) just _why_ would he want to put the strange place into memory? Everything worth remembering was set in a scar, thank you very much, and the rest of it could go to Hell (Heaven, Soul Society, whatever).

"But what about Rukia?" Ishida had demanded the moment they were back and alone.

Ichigo raised one eyebrow. "What about her?" He had asked back, in a tone that made the Quincy close his mouth slowly, then leave without another word.

He still looked as confused as when he had come.

And Ichigo could only shake his head, because no one could understand something as simple as Rukia. There was no point in waiting for her – she'd come crashing back into all their lives (his life) when she was ready to (when she felt like it, the bitch) and no amount of waiting or fretting would make a difference to the time.

And anyways, if her of absence lasted all his life, well then he'd just have to make it to Soul Society and come crashing back into _hers_. Simple.


	2. Fools for Nursemaids

**40.** Bedside Manner  
**Title: **Fools for Nursemaids  
**Word count:** 247  
**Rating:** G

"God, you're an idiot."

"Shut it, fool."

Rukia was giving him the nastiest glare she could muster, but the entire effect was ruined by the feverish flush across her face, and the covers drawn up to her nose.

Ichigo just shook his head as he rinsed the cloth in cool water, easily dismissing her irritation. "I still can't believe that you went running around in the rain after that Hollow, which I told you not to do."

"I couldn't let you fight it by yourself. You'd get your head bitten off." A rough cough followed. Ichigo turned to look for more cold medicine he had swiped from his father's clinic downstairs.

"All you did was stand in the rain and get sick."

Another angry look as he poured out the liquid. "You were there too!"

He just smirked at her. "But I'm not bedridden."

"That just proves fools can't catch colds."

Ichigo grit his teeth under her smirk and resisted the urge to smother her with his pillow. _'Suffocating the sick is dishonorable, suffocating the sick is dishonorable…'_ "You're supposed to be all defenseless and stuff. So drink your medicine before I let Kon take care of you."

Rukia's smirk just widened. "But doesn't the son of a doctor make a much better nursemaid?"

Ichigo snarled. "You can't be that bad if you're still such a pain in the ass."

Rukia began to squirm suddenly. "Ichigo, I'm cold." She whined.

The Strawberry could only sigh. Nursemaid indeed…


	3. HellMoth Pen Pal

**53.** cross-dimensional phone bills  
**Title:** Hell-Moth Pen Pal  
**Word Count: **460  
**Rating:** G

The creature fluttered through his window on silent wings, only the smallest ripple on reality as it left the night and crossed into the pale glow of his bedroom light. Without pause, it lighted on the top of his chair and then stopped moving.

Ichigo glared at it, annoyed. Even though the black butterfly had no eyes, he still felt like it was staring at him. He was so _tired_ of the stupid things. It was great that Rukia was thinking of him and all, and he did like getting news on how she was doing, but this was _to much_. The butterflies were beginning to piss him off.

At first, he had tried just shutting his window. That had sort of worked – they had stopped coming in his room. But the one had fluttered about pitifully around the glass and refused to go away. After two weeks, there were _eight_ of the stupid things hovering about his window sorrowfully, but it was only when Inoue commented at school how cute his window looked with his new butterfly attractor, and could he tell her where he got it so she could give one to Ishida? that he had hurried home and gotten the dumb bugs inside where no one could see them.

So he glared at the new one unhappily before finally relenting, "Alright, get on with it already."

Immediately, it began hovering in the air again, then delivered it's message. The voice was monotone, like someone deadpanning a letter, but the words were all Rukia, and by the end he found he was smiling fondly again. The smile died quickly, however, once the insect was finished and settled on the chair again.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, thanks. You can, uh, go home now."

It didn't move.

"Really," Ichigo insisted, "You can go back to Soul Society now."

It's wings twitched lazily, but it didn't leave.

Ichigo groaned, then resigned himself to his fate. After a few moments of hunting and cursing, he finally managed to catch the little annoyance. Now for the hard part. Warily, he stepped up to Rukia's Closet.

He slowly slid the door open a crack…

And immediately over 50 of the black Hell Moths sprang out of the closet and began to wing happily all over his room, but none of them made any move to leave.

Rukia could at least tell him how to get rid of the things, but the fact she never got a reply to any of her messages, or that the butterflies were not coming back didn't seem to deter her in the least.

Ichigo's cursing became more vehement. The pests were making his room all _girly_.

There just _had_ to be a more economic way to do this.


	4. The Absence of Sound

**7.** my broken hallelujah  
**Title:** The Absence of Sound  
**Word Count: **320  
**Rating: **G

Ichigo didn't regret leaving Rukia in Soul Society.

He regretted very little in his life, actually, but all his decisions concerning Rukia were ones he would never change, no matter if he could have done them differently. Even letting her stay behind.

She had fallen into his world, and fallen out again (the clumsy idiot), and then had danced out with a grace he had previously thought her incapable of, with all of her previously displayed ineptitude. But really, he had gone in the first place to save her, to keep her from dying from some sense of need to repay what was never really there. He went to keep her from becoming dead, because the little fool would surely die somehow if left on her own.

Once he got back, he realized just how quiet it had become in her absence. The world just seemed to make so much _noise_ around that girl. Laughter and arguments and talks and the wail of Hollows, a cacophony of sound and a whirlwind of life such that it was surprising one didn't lose his wits with the busyness of it all.

Even when she had been quiet, she wasn't really, because the sound of her breathing and the beating of her heart always so close (proof that she was living and existing just as he was) was present over the rain in his own self.

So he didn't regret leaving her behind. It was what she wanted, and would have raised hell if he had tried to have her do otherwise. And the moment she had been safe, the rain had – for the first time since his mothers death – stopped falling.

He didn't wish he had made her come. But he found standing in his empty room that he would have _preferred_ that she have come back to fill the place of the rain with her gentle world-noise in the sudden silence.


	5. By Comparison

**78.** sister complex  
**Title:** By Comparison  
**Word Count: **475  
**Rating:** PG

Byakyua hadn't been fond of Ichigo.

Not because he thought Kurosaki was a stupid uncouth boar (which he was), or he didn't _belong_ in this world (which he didn't), or even because he was infatuated with Rukia (which the elder Kuchiki was very certain of).

It was because Rukia was infatuated with him as well.

This caused some very interesting reactions in the Clan head, leaving him either wanting to feed Kurosaki to hollows in tiny pieces, or to lock his little sister in her room and jealously guard her door, with any person with a y chromosome meeting his sword in a very life changing (ending) way.

The second wasn't really an option Rukia would allow, so he spent an almost frightening amout of time trying to figure the first one without her ever finding out it had been his fault.

That is, until he came over to visit at the end of spring. On their way to the festival, Ichigo had given the captain a glance before slowing purposely, letting Rukia, with Renji and Hanatarou on her heels, turn the next corner well ahead of them. When he turned to the substitute Shinigami, he had met with a very unwelcome fist.

Byakyua's senses reeled for a moment. Then it clicked. The little bastard had _hit_ him.

Said bastard was glaring at him, obviously completely unaware that in a few seconds Byakyua would be trying to come up with an excuse for Ichigo's sudden, violent death.

Before he could draw his sword, the orange ape was growling at him, about how he didn't give a shit to what Byakyua thought of him, but he'd better grin and bear it, because if he refused to give Rukia his blessing when she asked him permission to live in the human world later tonight and she cried because of it, he'd kill him, goddammit.

And Byakyua could only narrow his eyes in a dangerous way, feeling one throb with the promise of being a nasty bruise in a matter of hours, and couldn't help his first hollow feeding plan slipping away.

Because really, anyone who was willing to punch him – in the face of the sure death sentence no less – on the _possibility_ that he might make Rukia cry was someone worth having around.

So he supposed that – stupid and uncouth and unbelonging and infatuated as Kurosaki was – he was at the very least most definitely NOT a suck up kind of guy if he could so easily pick a fight with his powerful-as-all-hell prospective brother-in-law. He was, in retrospect, much better than the wimpy noble fools from lesser houses trying for her hand.

Or anyone else Rukia had around to choose. She could be insisting on marring _Shiba Ganjyu_.

So Kurosaki Ichigo was – he might privately admit – the best choice after all.

By comparison, of course.


	6. Fragments of Forgotten

**58.** tie time in knots  
**Title:** Fragments of Forgotten  
**Word Count:** 290  
**Rating:** PG

_Running._

Reiratsu. Flare. Fight. Dim, flare again, desperate. Dim.

_Running._

* * *

"Don't just stare at it you moron, eat it."

"But it's cold."

"It's supposed to be cold, idiot."

"It's _melting_!"

"That's because you're not eating it, dumbass!"

_

* * *

Panting._

Reiratsu. Where? Gone. Search. Gone. Remember. Running.

_Panting._

Run. Run. Run.

_Panting._

* * *

"I'm…I've decided to stay here."

"…I know. I'm happy for you."

"Ichigo…"

_

* * *

Wind._

Fast. So fast. Run. Running fast.

_Wind._

Jump. Forward. Run forward.

_Wind._

Search. Reiratsu? Still gone. Still search.

_Wind._

There!

_Freeze._

* * *

"Gah! Y-you! Wh-what-"

"Hello Kurosaki-kun. I'm Kuchiki Rukia. I'll be sitting next to you as of today."

"Wait! What the Hell-"

"Kurosaki-kun, I don't have any books yet. Mind if I look off of you?"

_Fwip. "Make a scene and you're -"_

_

* * *

Drip._

Sound. Silence. Sound? Silence? Sound again. Silence again. One sound.

_Drip._

Falling. Slipping, draining, pooling, falling. Falling, falling, falling. Sound.

_Drip._

Red. White and grey and red. Black and night sky blue and concrete grey and red.

_Drip._

Shadow silk black. Deepest, endless violet. Red. Palest moonglow. Red, red, red, redredredredred-

_Drip._

Bone white. Claws, slashed black, painted new crimson.

_Drip._

* * *

"I-Ichigo…I wont thank you for this…"

"Heh…I know."

"So…now what?"

"Now we leave."

"W-what? B-but, all the captains and vice captains wont just let you walk away…"

"So I'll beat them up and then we'll leave."

"WHAT? You can't do that! Did you think this through at all? What sort of half-assed rescue attempt is this!"

_

* * *

Whisper._

Over violet. Bone white and claws and crimson falling.

_Whisper._

Voices. Outside? No, inside.

_Whisper._

Empty endless violet. Just as empty amber.

_Whisper._

Gone. To late. Far, to, to late. Gone with red and red and –

_Scream._


	7. World of Fairytales

**19.** the ivory tower  
**Title:** World of Fairytales  
**Word Count:** 412  
**Rating:** PG-13, language

It always had to be a tower.

And really, Ichigo thought, these people in Soul Society were very unimaginative, and so totally clichéd, because they _always_ but the damsel in distress in the tower. No _secrecy_, no _mystery_, lets put her in plain view where everyone can see and is the easiest to find. Don't hide her, lets put her on display so even the lowest soldiers that are the easiest to get information out of know all about how to get in.

He thought it was some sort of miracle that Rukia made as much sense as she did, if she came from a place like _this_.

Life wasn't some kind of _fairytale_. It irked him to no end that these people seemed hell-bent on treating it like one. Even their _criminals_ were dealt with like something out of his sisters old story books. Damsels in towers. _Whatever_.

Ichigo spent a moment trying to see _Rukia_, of all people, as a "Damsel in Distress". The image huddled on the floor, uncomfortably frightened eyes looking up at him for a moment – before the image-Rukia leapt to her feet and kicked his legs out from under him. Promptly, she began cursing his stupidity and stomping on his stomach.

His eyebrow began twitching. Rukia? Damsel in Distress? **_Like Hell_**.

There would be no point in living it, if life was a fairytale. _And boring,_ the image-Rukia nodded sagely, _defiantly far more boring too._

Fairyland, he was sure, had already written an ending for this part of their storybook world. He and his accomplices would be caught. Rukia, the tragic damsel in distress (_Like Hell!_), would be dramatically executed. There would be some mourning, but mostly rejoicing and merriment, and the story would be over, the page turned.

_So what are you doing following their script?_ Image-Rukia asked mildly, arms crossed and a condescending eyebrow raised. _If you don't like their ending, then just rip the pages out. Idiot._

Ichigo had to agree. One thing he and Rukia had in common was their ability to create utter chaos. This ability was partially willing, partially presence-induced, and had maximum effect when doing it together.

He wasn't a prince. She sure as hell wasn't a damsel of any kind. And when they were done with Soul Society, the _last_ thing it would resemble would be a fairytale.

He scowled. But first he would have to reach the stupid _tower_, by climbing a million fucking _stairs_.

Fairytales _suck_.


	8. Thrill of the Fight

**75.** versus  
**Title:** Thrill of the Fight  
**Word Count:** 792  
**Rating:** PG-13

Renji liked to fight.

This was something that he was certain most of Soul Society knew quite well. He loved conflict, loved calling on Zabimaru and slicing up his opponents. Loved the thrill of battle. When fighting, there were no morals. No "right" or "wrong". There was no time to waste on such trivial matters. It was survive, be strong, stronger than your opponent(s) or you fell. His love of battle didn't extend to the lengths that Zaraki's did, but far enough for him.

He had been exposed to and had some hand in every kind of battle out there.

The first was the battle for life. He'd been pitted against enough hollows and other dangers to be very intimate with this sort of battle.

The second was the fight for pride. He hadn't been so informed on these ones, but the few he'd participated in had driven him much further then he could ever think to go. It was these fights, truly, that could make people of Renji's nature as strong as they were.

When he'd fought Ichigo for the second time on the stairs to the tower, that had been a fight for pride. His pride, and Soul Society's pride. Uphold their laws and traditions, reclaim his own pride at having to have Kuchiki-taichou step in last time.

When he'd fought Byakyua himself, that had also been a fight for pride. His pride, Ichigo's pride, but mostly Rukia's pride, as she didn't seem to know how to fight for it herself.

"Jackass! Stop being annoying!"

"I would be if you weren't totally helpless!"

"Helpless! Listen you-"

And then, there were the fights that Renji liked the best.

"Insufferable, childish-"

"I'm not being childish! You bitch, you're the one who's blowing this out of proportion!"

Which he found a little strange, since he wasn't even participating in it. But there was something he just loved about standing just out of the war zone and watching the two of them go at it like a couple of teenagers. Kurosaki he could sorta understand, and Rukia was always just like that, but…

"Stop being an ass, Ichigo."

"Then stop being reckless, Rukia."

"Reckless is YOUR forte, not mine."

Ichigo, he knew, also loved to fight. To fight for life, and fight for pride, but if he had to guess, this would have to be his favorite kind of fight too.

"Oh no, don't you dare try to tell me I'm the only one who's reckless. YOU chase hollows with no way to kill them."

"My methods are just fine."

"…You have methods?"

_That_ one earned him a sharp punch to the gut, and Renji couldn't help wince even as he grinned in excitement. Enjoying himself as he was, he'd been on the end of enough of Rukia's blows to know how much force she could put behind them, powers or no powers.

But still, he thought that Ichigo must be enjoying himself as well, since they fought like this _every day_. Maybe not always this loudly and violently, but they found something to scream at each other about at this volume at least once a week. Every once in a while they had a really bad one that had them snarling at each other for days on end.

"Don't mock me, you stupid bastard!"

"Not mocking if it's true, you PMSing cow!"

Ichigo had incredible power. He upturned Soul Society. He changed the viewpoints of stoic ice-bastards like Kuchiki Byakyua. It was rumored, secretly and spoken in the barest of hushed, awed whispers, that Kurosaki could do anything. Could be a mortal _god_.

"_Cow_? I'll show you a _cow_ Kurosaki-!"

Renji just thought that Strawberry-head loved to fight more than anything else. Because it was the only thing he could think of that made sense. His love of the fight had carried him through upturning Soul Society, and changing Byakyua. It must also be the thing that made him keep coming back.

"A-Ack! You stubborn Bitch!"

"Wrong species, you illiterate ass. Bitches are dogs, not farmyard bovine."

Because for someone with godlike power, Kurosaki Ichigo was a little strange in that he would always be beaten by Kuchiki Rukia. No matter how much he fought (and they met on this particular battle field quite often) she somehow managed to beat him every time.

"Yeah, well you're – quit _choking_ me goddammit!"

"You forgot to say 'Please' Kurosaki-kun!"

And the fact that it was a _girl half his size_ that he couldn't best was probably not helpful in the pride department. But then, Kurosaki was so powerful that it didn't really matter all that much, since he had yet to run into someone either stupid enough or drunk enough to say it to his face.


	9. Invert Space

**1.** tiny cage for a golden bird  
**Title:** Invert Space  
**Word Count:** 491  
**Rating:** G

The White Tower was, she decided, probably the largest building in Soul Society.

Each wall stood so long a way from its nearest neighbor, steps along the outside winding up and away to make even more space, trailing to a ceiling that hovered what felt like miles above her head. Slatted windows, thin breaks in the smooth perfection were regular, not taking anything away from the seamless picture that it made standing tall on the cliff in the middle of Seireitei. Standing the tallest, proudest, the one place always visible no matter where you were, the one place closest to the sky.

Rukia had felt claustrophobic almost immediately.

Because of this, she spent much time huddled as close to those windows as possible (but never allowing herself to be touched by the light streaming through them in the day, afraid that her self-imposed blindness would be shattered if it was to meet her skin) staring out into the endless blue of the sky, and the star drenched night, with a desperate hunger she had forgotten how to acknowledge or even _understand_, much less ease.

When she was feeling particularly self hateful, she would go to the bottom and lay in the center of the floor, farthest away from any window (but still not letting the sun touch her, never letting the light quite reach her) and let the constant nausea take hold, pressing and pushing with a force that was tangible until she couldn't breathe any more. At these times, she was sure that the tower would suffocate her long before the Sokyoku would taste her blood.

And then sometimes, so very rarely, she would sit by the highest window, right next to the slanted sunlight, and divide her attention between the open sky so close and the dizzying drop to a floor she almost couldn't see. At these times, she would compare the two, and wonder if it had been the momentary taste of freedom that made this cage seem so impossibly small to her now. Surely, this was the largest place they had, there could be no bigger cage.

But then, as it always did, an image would rise in her mind, a little fuzzy, and slightly distorted, and she would feel the tightness overcoming her until she had to look out the window again and find some way to make that narrow vision her world. A human bedroom, colors bleeding into each other a little, but mostly all there, and a space that the rest of the world called a closet, with a few blankets and a pillow, a girls school uniform and a few manga, barely enough space for _those_, let alone _her_.

And she could only smile at the sky in an empty sort of way, knowing that it was the taste of that cage – so large and comfortable – that had made her current cage far to small, and the freedom of the sky so inadequate.


	10. Can and Can't

**47.** crossing burned bridges  
**Title:** Can and Can't  
**Word Count: **214  
**Rating:** G

"Ichigo..." Rukia, eyes wide, could only shake her head slowly, desperatly willing him to understand. "It can't be done. You have to understand, please, it just can't be."

The orange haired shinigami didn't seem moved. "Why not?"

"Listen." She tried. "I'm dead. I don't belong in that world. Not with the living. I left it so long ago I don't even remember a time when I _did_ belong."

He just gave her a _look_. "When's that stopped you before?"

"You just don't get it." She was getting angry now. "When you die, that bridge is burned forever. The River cannot be crossed. There's no going back."

"There's no going back from this either." Now both his eyebrows were raised. "When did you start letting a few feet scare you, anyway?"

"I'm not scared!"

"Ignoring the mainstream thinkers," Ichigo asked over her outburst, "what would your answer have been?"

She didn't even have to consider that one. "Yes."

He beamed. "Great. I knew we were on the same page."

She fumed and stomped on his foot with all her strength.

They were married two months later.

As she walked down the isle, Rukia wondered why she had thought that a missing bridge was so important. There was no need to walk when you had wings.


	11. Loaded Questions

**50.** first kiss  
**Title:** Loaded Questions  
**Word Count: **684  
**Rating:** PG-13

"Truth."

Miziru looked faintly thoughtful as he glanced around the small circle of people. When his gaze landed on the severe-looking, stone faced man introduced as Rukia's brother, he had to suppress the smile when he turned back to Ichigo with his question.

"What was your first kiss like?"

The beer that had been halfway down his friends' throat sharply came back up.

When they had planned Ichigo's bachelor party, they probably should have tried to find better things to do than play a child's game like truth or dare. Miziru thought it was to bad that Ichigo had come down on them and threatened death on his "no strippers" policy, so that didn't leave them much else to do. But apparently, this Byakyua person was very traditional, and would not appreciate the gesture.

Chad and Keigo were watching their orange-haired friend cough with mild interest. Ishida was leaning back with a secretive smirk, most likely finding all this hilarious.

Or maybe he was laughing at the way that half the other people Miziru didn't know personally were leaning forward like they were waiting to tear Kurosaki apart.

He had felt a little put out at how many people were here that he hadn't known. Ichigo had met lots of people from Rukia's side that he had never gotten to see. But he did wonder why Chad and Ishida seemed to know them as well.

The most dangerous person in the room was probably the bride's brother. Miziru didn't think he'd finished giving the groom a hard time for marring his sister yet.

Next to Byakyua was Renji-san, with his crimson ponytail, jagged black tattoo's, and wildly dangerous expression.

Ganjyu and Hanatarou were a little further down, the former snickering, the latter trying to shush him hurriedly.

Urahara-san, Ukitake-san, and Hitsugaya-san (he'd been unsure if they should be letting someone who looks like he should be in grade school drink, but everyone assured him he was of legal age) were just on his left – one with a fan out, the first two leaning forward expectantly and the younger rolling his eyes.

"Well?" Keigo prompted.

"Yeah dandelion, you have to answer, right?"

Hanatarou was trying to silence Ganjyu-san more desperately now, but he didn't seem to be making much progress.

Having had to explain the rules of truth or dare to all of the new people (he thought that was strange too), they most certainly caught on fast.

Ichigo had stopped wheezing, but now he was eyeing Byakyua-san and Renji-san (leaned forward like a rabid hungry wolves) like he was judging the distance between them.

Miziru felt a moment of pity for his friend, but brushed it off a second later. It was certainly a loaded question, but it could have been much worse. He could have asked him what his first lay had been like, and _then_ he either would have had to tell his bride's overprotective traditionalist brother and best friend about how he'd had sex (with her or with another girl) or admit to his other friends that he was a virgin. In that light, he'd gotten off easy.

To his credit, while tense as a bowstring he didn't fidget. "There isn't much to tell. Rukia told me I kissed like a dead fish and to hurry my ass up or we'd miss the train."

He relaxed only slightly when everyone leaned back in disappointment or amusement.

"Ah, my friend is so lame." Keigo mourned, and received a sharp kick for his trouble.

Fully at ease now, Ichigo turned to Ganjyu-san and had opened his mouth to continue the game when the door slammed open with a resounding crash. The loud voice that followed the tackily dressed man in the doorway was one Miziru was sure he should know.

"Boy! When I heard you were getting married, I had to come congratulate my number one pupil! Bowa ha ha ha ha!"

"Yeargh! Get out you freak! Leave me the _hell_ alone!"

Yes, Miziru thought he should feel lucky he didn't know half the people Ichigo did. The man had the strangest friends.

00000000000

_I think I must apologize. I was trying for subtle with the last character, but I seem to have been to vague. The last apperence was Don Kanoji. I thought that his use of "number one pupil!" and trademark "Bowahahahaha!" would give it away..._

_.:sulks:. Was there anyone who recognized him? Anyone?_


	12. Spotlight Blinding

**85.** walking around with blinders on  
**Title:** Spotlight Blinding  
**Word Count: **425  
**Rating:** G

Isshin acted like a fool.

He was the very definition of immature. He flailed and over-dramatized, spazzed out and encouraged his daughters to do stupid things and attacked his only son in his sleep on a regular basis.

He never told his children that he took theatre in his youth, before deciding to become a doctor, and had gotten top marks.

Kurosaki Isshin _acted_ like a fool.

Because the best place to hide was, of course, in plain sight. No one could tell when he was watching or being stupid. The greatest joke was that he was always watching.

He knew the instant a shinigami first entered his son's room. All the banging had given him a reason to investigate, but he decided to leave things alone since she was quite cute despite the severe expression on her face. It really was to bad that saying something about it would give away the fact that he could indeed see her.

He knew the instant he walked into Ichigo's room the next morning that he'd become a full fledged shinigami himself. Not sure how he felt about that, he pounced on his still sleeping son.

He knew when a girl started to live in his closet, the extra steps in his room and the sound of the shower at midnight quite obvious. Yuzu's clothes disappearing and the soft scent of vanilla coming out of Ichigo's room and the faint spirit pressure she had left unmistakable.

He knew when his friend came in to the clinic with a hollow wound and a parakeet. Ichigo was becoming a proper shinigami, learning why he needed the power to protect the people around him. He still wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he trusted the girl with him to teach him right.

He knew when the new shinigami was fighting in the cemetery, discovering the truth about his mother and he finally thought that letting him become a shinigami was probably the best thing for him. He would teach him how to be a man, and let this girl teach him how to be a Death God.

He knew when she must have been caught by Soul Society, because all of Yuzu's things came back, and Ichigo became even angrier at the world in general when he had been more at peace.

And when he sent his son to Uraharra to go bring Kuchiki Rukia back, he couldn't help but smile just like the shopkeeper. No one could see it though – not when everyone else was wearing blinders.


	13. Conspiracy Theory

**37.** losing my grip  
**Title:** Conspiracy Theory  
**Word Count: **399  
**Rating: **PG-13, Language

They're at it again.

The two of 'em, I swear, they do it on purpose at where they _know_ I can see 'em, tryin' to infect me with their weird disease.

I thought that Kurosaki and Kuchiki's in general were above such boring things. But every time the two come for one of their "family visits" they always end up at the 11th division headquarters sooner or later, the Kuchiki girl squealin' and spoiln' Yachiru stupid with candy and cuddles and junk from the human world. And with Kurosaki being a total _wuss_ to be catering to the whims of some woman.

The worst of it is I can't kick 'em out or ban 'em, 'cause then Yachiru would get mad at _me_ so I have to sit here and watch this disgusting display as they be all cutesy and _together_, and subject Yachiru to the same gross display's as standing within two feet of each other.

And I know they're mocking me, dammit, just tryn' to ruin my image. Well, it's not gonna work! I'm still just as badass as before, as badass as I've ever been with a pink haired child sitting on my shoulders!

Wait, scratch that. As deadly awesome as I've always been killing stuff. That works better.

Once, I grabbed Kurosaki by the scruff of his neck and demanded to know why the hell he was doing anything that female wanted. Be a man, not some pansy-ass. Makes _me_ look bad, to have lost to some not-man.

He just looked at me like I was the stupid one and told me, "Every husband, or lover, knows you don't disagree with the girl."

"Well why the hell not? You're stronger, you can kick her ass, so why listen to 'er?"

Dumbass just looked at me strangely, and said, "When you-" stopped himself, "IF you ever get a girlfriend, you'll understand what I mean."

HA! Me, catering to some wimpy female? Not bloody likely! But they're gonna try and make me, I just know it, the way they keep comin' here tryin' to make me sick with their "love" disease crap – I'M NOT GONNA FALL FOR IT! FOR ANYONE! EVER! ZARAKI KENPACHI DOSEN'T DO LOVE SHIT!

When I catch myself watching the hem of Matsumoto's yukata, I resolve to kill Kurosaki the next time he sets foot in my division. The bastard, spreadin' his filthy germs.

0000000000

_...That was really bad. I can't write Kenpachi ever. I suck at life._

_.:runs covering head:. No throw stones! NO THROW STONES! I'll be good, I'll try harder, the next one will be sooner, the next one will be cooler! Don't abandon my poor fic, she needs you because her author is a lame workaholic who has no idea how to take care of her!_

_Social Services: If no one can speak for her, we'll have no choice but to remove this fic from this losers care. She is clearly unfit to be an author for anything, and cannot be aloud to retain custody of the fic._

_NOO! My fic! I love you! You can't take her away! I'm so sorry, that your own author is so useless she's completly failed you!_

_.:sobbing:._

_--End Melodrama--_


	14. Summer Vacation, Take Two

**42.** road trip  
**Title:** Summer Vacation, Take Two  
**Word Count: **350  
**Rating:** G

"You're joking."

Tatsuki couldn't help the wicked smirk that rose at the openmouthed, dumbfounded, and slightly horrified expression. "It's a great idea."

His mouth snapped shut sharply, the usual scowl returning with an angry vengeance. "When I planned on taking Rukia to the beach for our honeymoon, I didn't plan on taking everyone else with us."

Tatsuki snickered. While she _should_ be sympathizing with her childhood friend's predicament, the idea was just to absurd for her to not want to support it.

And mock Ichigo. Mercilessly. Who could pass _that_ up?

"You know, she'll be happy to spend time with everyone."

And just like that, Ichigo was scowling fit to kill, but he didn't say anything. He really was a sucker for the really important women in his life. Just like with his sisters, if it made them happy then he'd choke on his pride and stay silent.

It really was just too easy to not use it against him every now and again. "She was so excited to go with every one."

"I'm sure." He snarled, giving her a hateful look as the trap snapped shut. If she already knew that everyone was going and wanted it, he couldn't try to call it off now.

"But," she drawled slowly, savoring the waiting silence. "I suppose someone really aught to explain to her that there aren't _really_ mermaids that keep pet Lock Ness Monsters where we're going. She'll be very disappointed if she gets there and has to find out the hard way she can't take a sea serpent home as a pet."

"What?" he spluttered after several false starts.

"Well, I can only assume she wanted to keep one. She and Orihime were talking about how big a tank she'd need to keep one in, and how many pudding cakes they would need to feed one every day…"

When he bolted off, she really thought she'd done him a service letting him stop this now rather than later.

There were still the skeleton pirates to deal with, but that was one of the things she was looking forward to.


	15. Friends Like These

**61.** herculean efforts  
**Title:** Friends Like These  
**Rating:** G  
**Word Count:** 340

Quincy hated Shinigami.

This was a fact of life, like the sky being blue and fish swimming in water. That was the way the world worked, and it worked quite well if you wanted to know, thanks for asking.

But, as it seemed was usually the case, Kurosaki and Kuchiki defined "exception to the rule", even if it was a law of nature. Ichigo was a human turned shinigami. Rukia was a shinigami turned sort of human turned shinigaimi again. Yet somehow – not that he'd _ever_ admit it to anyone – he couldn't really bring himself to not like them.

That, of course, didn't mean that he wasn't going to indulge in amusement at their expense.

So he didn't feel at all guilty watching them make a spectacle of themselves in the middle of a busy street. And if they were screaming so loudly about something he had said that put them at odds, well could he have known that they would have disagreed?

…Okay so he may have had an idea, but could anyone blame him? It was _fun_.

The both of them certainly had their work cut out for them if they ever thought to have to live with each other, but they had to know that already on some level. Both were stubborn and headstrong, but he couldn't honestly tell himself they were stupid. Not totally, at least.

Ishida decided – as Rukia's voice hit a new level of shrill he'd not been aware she could reach – that the things worth having had to be hard won, right? Right. Neither of them were the type to want something that came easily. They'd both be happier in the long run that they had to work for it. They were just lucky to have a friend like Ishida Uryuu who was nice enough to help them all for free and sneaky enough to keep them from knowing it and not get caught. Yep, very lucky indeed.

And if he enjoyed "helping" them, well that's just a bonus for him.


	16. What Love Letters Are For

Finals are all over! Now, Authors notes are rare for me, but there is special occasion I need to address. I might have done it directly, but was not given the option, so everyone gets to read this and celebrate this with me. Read slowly and carefully, and here we go.

To Truth Be Told: THANKYOU! It made me so happy to hear from you, because you are my first flame! I am now a real writer on this site, as I have finally been tagged by an anonymous flamer who has poor grammar, no sense of punctuation, cites things from my author warnings that have not even shown up in my story's yet (and may not ever), and has nothing better to do with their time then to tell me I suck. w00t! My initiation is complete!

To all my readers: just about all pointless flames will be handled in this manner. I take offence to very little, and most of the time I make a show of pointing and laughing. (This comes with having an open mind. The downside to this is that stuff tends to fall out as easily as it falls in.) If you want me to take a bad review or flame seriously, then log in (or leave an email where I can contact you so I know you are not just poking fun at someone who can't poke back), check your review for obvious errors and sentence structure so you sound like you've passed second grade, and cite actual instances where you think I have messed up. If you sound like you have the mental and emotional age of someone at least over six, then I will take your review seriously. I most likely still won't take offence, but I will not laugh at you, and your opinion will be handled with the respect and courtesy expected from one mature human to another.

RE To all my readers: My psychiatrist would like you all to know that my medication being doubled has stopped my hysterical laughter, and I have stopped being considered a threat to society quite some time ago. The two hour twice weekly appointments are just for procedure. We've talked about not doing what the voices in my head say.

To my psychiatrist: the blue deer has not come back yet. I'll call when she does.

Major fic dump comming tomorrow, sometime after I've had more than two hours of sleep. For the moment, enjoy these two.

**33.** secret admirer  
**Title:** What Love Letters Are For  
**Word Count:** 202  
**Rating:** G

When Rukia came in the classroom that morning, it was to find an envelope addressed to her on her desk. She blinked at it and tilted her head, knowing that she _must_ have seen this somewhere before in her studies before finally deciding to open it.

"Oh, Kuchiki-san, is that a love letter?" Inoue asked as she bounced up to where the smaller girl was standing. "What does it say? Who's it from?"

"This is a love letter?" Rukia asked, sounding incurious. "It just says that they think I'm pretty, or something." She looked to the bottom of the letter. "And it's not signed."

"Ohhh!" Orihime squealed. "A secret admirer! How cute!"

Rukia didn't understand. "Cute? How's it cute if I don't even know who it is?"

"But it's so romantic-"

CRACK

The rest of the class turned around to face the door. There was Ichigo, his hand on the broken door, looking murderous.

Rukia raised one eyebrow. Ichigo just turned around and strode away.

Now she remembered where she had seen this. 'Love letters' were for telling a girl you liked them, and getting their jealous, over-protective boyfriends to kill you.

"Aa." Rukia agreed. "Cute." In a sadistic kind of way.


	17. Long Life in Death

**21.** black paper cranes  
**Title:** Long Life in Death  
**Word Count:** 307  
**Rating:** G

Keigo was convinced he would never understand Ichigo.

"It's Christmas, Ichigo! How can you, in good conscience, give the lovely Kuchiki-san _that_?"

The caveman was just grunting at him!

"I'm a bit confused as well, Ichigo." Good Miziru! Always a loyal friend when it came to Ichigo, if not when it came to girls or vacations or test scores. "What kind of message are you trying to send? 'Long life'? Or 'I hope you die'?"

"Just because you morons don't understand doesn't mean I don't."

"We're not morons! And if we don't get it, Kuchiki-san probably wont either. She doesn't deserve such an uncaring brute sending her gifts!"

"I just thought," Miziru, always the voice of reason, "that it was a properly sentimental gift. You've been trying to think of a nice one for weeks, right? You don't even give this much consideration to your little sisters presents."

Ichigo was opening his mouth to snap another reply even as he was carefully folding the wing of another black paper crane when the Bosom Goddess Inoue bounced up. Then the strangest thing happened; she took one look at what Ichigo-insensitive-jerk was working on and _beamed_.

"Kurosaki-kun! Those are for Kuchiki-san, right?"

Now how, all heavens above, did she know that stupid – and slightly sadistic – gift was for the Goddess Kuchiki Rukia?

"Yeah." He shot her a grateful look. "These idiots don't understand what they mean, but I told them Rukia would so it wouldn't matter."

Rukia? _Rukia?_ Since when did he get permission to call her by her first name?

"Ah." Orihime nodded sagely. "They mean 'Long Life in Death', right?" He nodded. "She'll love it."

"Yeah." He looked really pleased with himself. "I thought it was a nice touch."

No, Keigo would never understand Ichigo. But if Inoue did, he wondered if that meant he was contagious.


	18. Sing for the Dawn

Here it is! This is the "Seperation Arc", so Enjoy an early Christmas present!

**20.** sing a song of sixpence  
**Title:** Sing for the Dawn (1/6)  
**Word Count:** 782  
**Rating:** PG  
"Savin' Me" by Nickelback

Ukitake liked to think of himself as a good captain. He looked after his subordinates, cared about them, did everything in his power to keep them safe.

"_Prison gates won't open up for me  
__On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'  
__Oh, I reach for you"_

But he was only shinigami, and like everyone else, he made mistakes too. Not very often, but when he did, the results were usually a disaster.

"_Well I'm terrified of these four walls  
__These iron bars can't hold my soul in  
__All I need is you"_

Kaien…Kaien's last fight was…

Ukitake wasn't sure if he would consider it a mistake or not. Surely the very end result of his blood on Kuchiki Rukia's hands and sword was a mistake, a grave one, one he regretted so deeply it hurt.

"_Come, please, I'm callin'  
__And oh I scream for you  
__Hurry, I'm fallin'  
__I'm fallin'"_

Usually, though, he thought he had done the right thing in letting Kaien fight. He would have never been able to live with himself if he hadn't, and maybe even if he had.

But when things like this happened, he wasn't so sure he had done the right thing at all. Not when he knew that had Kaien not been killed, the recent chain of events would have not led to this painful aftermath.

"_Show me what it's like  
__To be the last one standing  
__And teach me wrong from right  
__And I'll show you what I can be  
__Say it for me  
__Say it to me  
__And I'll leave this life behind me  
__Say it if it's worth saving me"_

As a captain, Ukitake was fond of Rukia. Kuchiki was like no one he had ever met before, and had a charm of her own that could only be seen when you were looking at the girl, and not the clan member. He was well aware of her drawing abilities (or lack thereof, as Kaien had shown him time and again, scribbled in the margins of some of her particularly boring reports). She was…not very good.

But she _could_ sing. Very, very well.

"_Heaven's Gates won't open up for me  
__With these broken wings I'm fallin'  
__And all I see is you"_

For a long time after Kaien died, she would go to the field and stand under the stars, as if she didn't know where she was or what to do, as if she were trying to find something that no one could see.

After her near execution and subsequent saving, Kurosaki Ichigo had gone home. And she had decided to stay here. Now she came back to the field and stood in the dark for hours, and would sing.

This field, filled with rue and iris, to Rukia represented regret.

"_These city walls ain't got no love for me  
__I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story  
__And oh I scream for you"_

And so he would come too and watch over her. Make sure she went home eventually, Even though he felt a little dishonest, since he knew the words she sang to herself were not meant for his ears.

"_Come, please, I'm callin'  
__And all I need from you  
__Hurry I'm fallin'  
__I'm fallin'"_

They were meant for _his_. But he wasn't here. And Ukitake was the only one who would know where she would go to sing.

"_Show me what it it's like  
__To be the last one standing  
__And teach me wrong from right  
__And I'll show you what I can be"_

But then, if Kaien hadn't died like he had, then Rukia wouldn't have met Ichigo like she had, and he wouldn't have come and saved them all.

And Rukia, too, would still be pining after someone she could never have.

So as her voice greeted the rising sun, he thought that perhaps, maybe, things had indeed turned out for the best, all scars included.

"_Say it for me  
__Say it to me  
__And I'll leave this life behind me  
__Say it if it's worth saving me  
__Hurry, I'm fallin'"_

But he hoped, so desperately, that Kurosaki Ichigo would come back for her someday. If he did, Ukitake wanted to show him the field, and the thing that had been given to him alone.

"_And all I need is you  
__Come, please, I'm callin'  
__And oh, I scream for you  
__Hurry, I'm fallin'  
__I'm fallin', I'm fallin'  
__Show me what it's like  
__To be the last one standing  
__And teach me wrong from right  
__And I'll show you what I can be  
__Say it for me  
__Say it to me  
__And I'll leave this life behind me  
__Say it if it's worth saving me"_


	19. Fields of the Winjruit

**12.** though I walk through the valley  
**Title:** Fields of the Winjruit (2/6)  
**Word Count:** 369  
**Rating:** G

Rukia sat in the field amid the tall, sweeping grass, fingering the flower chain and wondering what she should sing tonight. She looked around her slowly, small white Rue, just like the ones in her hands, smattered around in the grass like so many stars that had fallen, like so many shards of regret, like so many pieces of her life…

Trapped, helpless, in memories colored in black and white and crimson.

A subtle presence brushed up against hers, stealing her attention for a moment before it slid back to her earlier thoughts. Ukitake could never hide his presence fully when he felt guilty about it. It didn't help that she was best in her kido classes either.

Still, she always felt a little bit better, if a little more nostalgic, that he would come here with her. He was trying to make up for her pain, she knew, but she found it oddly ironic. He had been unable to protect her from killing Kaien then, and was unable to protect her from the pain now. But she did feel a little better that he was there, just out of sight.

A comforting offset to the memory of Kaien's death, a dark horror also waiting just out of sight.

As the memory surged forward, she looked upward and set her sights to the high, elusive stars above her.

Such light and beauty all together, yet surrounded by such shadows. Threatened by such darkness…

_But that darkness is what makes the light so powerful._ That tiny voice whispered. _The darkness and the stars are not judging like the rest of the world…_

Ichigo had asked her once why she was staring at the sky. Eyes on the stars, she had told him that they were the same as Soul Society. At the time, she had meant that they were the same as home.

And when she found herself on her feet with her eyes on he fading stars and her voice on the wind, she hoped Ichigo was also watching the same stars. Because they still reminded her of home.

"___Prison gates won't open up for me  
__On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'  
__Oh, I reach for you__…"_


	20. Friend in Need

**67.** windows to the soul  
**Title:** Friend in Need (3/6)  
**Word Count:** 393  
**Rating:** G

Ichigo was in another of his frequent foul moods.

Kon watched him staring out that stupid window into the warm, cloudless night and briefly contemplated asking him what he was staring at. But he didn't, because he already knew where his part shinigami roommate's mind was.

Kon could always read Ichigo like a book.

Ever since he had returned from Soul Society without nee-san (Kon had been very careful to make sure that Ichigo knew how he felt about that) Ichigo had been getting increasingly unpleasant to be around.

Kon had tried talking to Ichigo about this, on several occasions.

That had not gone over well. After the last time when Ichigo had shoved him in the washing machine and then the dryer with his fathers laundry, Kon had since stopped trying to get him to talk about it and resigned himself to keeping Ichigo as busy as possible to keep him from thinking about nee-san.

This had mixed results, and the outcome differed, depending on who you asked.

On the one hand, Ichigo wasn't so focused on staring into space that he turned into a permanent vegetable. On the other, Kon would need more stuffing soon.

This didn't deter him from incurring the abuse every now and again, however, when the benefits of snapping Ichigo out of his silent funk outweighed the inevitable punishment.

Which was, Kon would be the first to admit, probably worse than the punishment given to anyone else if they were to take Kon's place as caretaker/relationship guidance counselor. Kon just always seemed to know what to say at any given moment to shift Ichigo's attention the most, in the direction of fury.

Because Kon could always read Ichigo like a book, and eyes were the window to the soul. Ichigo's eyes windows to a soul – his soul – that Kon understood the most, only second to Rukia.

So he felt it his duty, since nee-san wasn't present, to put that knowledge to use. "Looking for your imaginary friends?"

Amber eyes swung over to him, soul barred and anger blazing. Rukia was NOT imaginary, who SAID he was looking for her…?

Locked in Yuzu's room scribbled all over with flowers and butterflies in permanent marker on his manly fur, while not unexpected, was still humiliating. At least Ichigo was getting more creative.

It was such a thankless job sometimes.


	21. Hazard Zone Utopia

**63. **one short of paradise  
**Title:** Hazard Zone Utopia (4/6)  
**Word Count:** 160  
**Rating:** PG

Ichigo's world had never been perfect. There had always been something he wished would stop, that he wished would change, that he didn't want to happen. The time before his mother died didn't really count; he couldn't recall that time really anyway and he'd had Tasuki whipping him at every practice.

The last three months had been the worst with the absolute _chaos_ that had been his life ever since that annoying bitch had first broke into his room, then tied him up and drew on his face. Normal life was a welcome relief.

So why couldn't he believe that?

All of his friends were here, were safe. They all came out okay. He never had time to be lonely, between his crazy ass family and Kon.

But still it seemed that chaos was the closest to paradise he'd ever been. Perhaps, if he told himself enough times, he'd begin to believe that one short was close enough to satisfy.


	22. Arc Interlude

**2.** raindrops on my eyelashes  
**Title:** Arc Interlude (Cry for Nothing) (4.5/6)  
**Word Count:** 211  
**Rating:** G

He stood in the street, looking off into empty air and darkness. Into nothing.

Into memory. Into the place where a door full of light had sprung into existence and swallowed her whole, vanishing as completely as it had appeared. Into the last place she had stood in this world. His world.

And he couldn't feel, couldn't think, didn't know if he was breathing. Because the empty space in himself that opened with that door had never closed when it disappeared.

Rain fell around him out of the darkness, sliding down the street light, rushing in the gutters, dripping down his face, through his eyelashes and across his cheeks in a cruel imitation of tears, and he couldn't decide if the sky was mocking him or trying to cry for him.

He wasn't crying. He probably would be fighting it if he was, but he felt nothing and if you didn't feel anything then you couldn't fight the tears that wouldn't come.

So he tilted his head back and let the rainwater wash down his face and for a moment pretended that he was crying, and that the part of him that felt enough for such things hadn't walked away through a door that vanished into thin, empty air and shadows.


	23. Nudge

**18.** crossing the borderline  
**Title:** Nudge (5/6)  
**Word Count:** 412  
**Rating:** G

Kuchiki Rukia had been his best customer. She had visited him, spoken with him of home, spent money for his goods (quite a bit of money), and even – once or twice – sought his guidance. They were just north of acquaintances, perhaps even called friends.

And in the end, he had been the one to hurt her the most.

He had not seen her since the Menos Grande incident with the hollow bait he'd sold the Quincy (she had to have realized that too – who _else_ could he have gotten it from?). But what it really came down to was that Uraharra was too much of a coward to face her after she fully understood how much he had used her, how he had twisted the situation.

How much he had a hand – directly or indirectly – in putting the technology that had caused her to kill Shiba Kaien within her own body, thereby endangering even more people. The bitter taste of his guilt coupled with his fear of what would be on her face the next time they saw each other made him more than a little shamefully relieved she had decided to stay behind.

But guilty or not, Uraharra was arguably the most intelligent individual that Soul Society had ever seen, and he could always read much farther than everyone else.

So naturally, he almost always knew how to best handle any situation.

"Ah, good morning, Kurosaki-kun!"

"U-Uraharra, you weird bastard! What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?"

"Why, sending you on your vacation of course!"

"_Vacation?_ What vacation?"

"You better run really fast, Ichigo-san, or you're gonna get stuck."

"Gah! Don't turn that thing o- STOP! Stopit you psycho!"

"Have a safe trip!" Uraharra called after the flying black robed form as his staff flung the substitute shinigami through the gate under his store for the second time.

And he flicked his fan up to hide his relieved smile as he watched the gate on his end fizz out. Kiske was a man of science, so he knew all about how the laws of physics worked. He understood that if someone spent enough time toeing a line and peering out over it as far as he could go, a little nudge would be all that was required to have him come tumbling across it face first.

But he figured Ichigo would be okay. Once he picked himself up and found he was across the line, the rest would be easy.


	24. Far Away

**52.** there's no tommarrow without you  
**Title:** "Far Away" (6/6)  
**Word Count:** 846  
**Rating:** PG-13, Language

"Goddamn that wooden-sandal-hat freak!"

Ichigo was in a less than pleasant mood.

"When I get back I'm gonna throw him down his own stupid hollow pit and fill in the hole!"

He was trudging through a forest in what could only be Soul Society from the way he'd gotten there; cold, wet, lost, blind in the dark, and out of breath – but not so winded that he couldn't curse the eccentric former shinigami captain bastard.

"Pessimistic old geezer!"

He had no _idea_ why Uraharra had deemed it necessary to grab him out of his home, bed and body at _two in the fucking morning_ to shove him through the Gateway to Hell under his shop, but the second he got back sandal-hat was going to pay for it.

But when he opened his mouth to begin ranting again, something else caught his attention. A sound, drifting in the air, defiantly human made.

Curious to the noise, Ichigo started towards it. He was already lost, so finding someone who knew where he was and how he could get back to the other gate – or at least the other shinigami – was a welcome change to his current situation.

The closer he got, the more the sounds became words, and the more familiar the voice became. There was a sudden pause, and for a moment Ichigo also stopped – worried that he'd lost the trail – until it started again. This time, it was clear.

"_This time, this place  
__Misused, Mistakes  
__Too long, too late  
__Who was I to make you wait?"_

The darkness was suddenly looming much closer than he remembered, and something inside him _pulled_. Before he really knew it, he was sprinting through the trees and darkness again.

He knew who was at the other end of that voice. And silly as it felt, he had to get to her before the darkness chasing him did.

"_Just one chance  
__Just one breath  
__Just in case there's just one left  
__Cause you know,  
__You know, you know"_

And suddenly he'd burst into clean air in the clearing and she was _there_ in a sea of grey with the burning white of fallen stars all around her like so many tiny candles, like so many guiding beacons…

She stilled abruptly as his reiratsu washed over her, flooding her senses, and her gaze snapped round to his, and he found then that there were stars in her eyes too – only the night sky could have such contrast of darkness and light in one place all together like that.

Then she opened her mouth, but instead of his name (he knew she wanted to say it, it was so clear in her eyes) she continued where she had stopped. They stood there – she in the center of the night, he at the edge – and he listened to the voice that had called him through the darkness.

"_I love you  
__I have loved you all along  
__And I miss you  
__Been far away for far to long  
__I keep dreaming you'll be with me  
__And you'll never go  
__Stop breathing if  
__I don't see you anymore"_

He was barely aware of the steps into the grass and stars, only that the distance between him and her was shrinking. As he reached her side, the voice was ringing strong and clear.

"_On my knees, I'll ask  
__Last chance for one last dance  
_'_Cause with you, I'd withstand  
__All of hell to hold your hand  
__I'd give it all  
__I'd give for us  
__Give anything but I won't give up  
_'_Cause you know,  
__you know, you know…"_

His arms came up to encircle her, such a natural reflex, even as she leaned into him, and he heard her as she looked up through half lidded eyes.

"I love you."

Something else white flickered at the edge of his vision, but he didn't bother to trace it. He didn't sense a hollow, and Rukia wasn't concerned, so it wasn't important.

She rested her head against him, but her voice wasn't muffled at all.

"_And I have loved you all along  
__And I miss you  
__Been far away for far to long  
__I keep dreaming you'll be with me  
__And you'll never go  
__Stop breathing if  
__I don't see you anymore"_

And as suddenly as he'd felt it come, the darkness receded, and the sun reached over the trees.

"_So far away  
Been far away for far too long  
So far away  
Been far away for far too long  
But you know, you know, you know"_

They'd both gotten through the night and found tomorrow.

"_I wanted  
I wanted you to stay  
'Cause I needed  
I need to hear you say  
I love you  
I have loved you all along  
And I forgive you  
For being away for far too long  
So keep breathing  
'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore  
__Believe it, hold on to me, never let me go  
__Keep breathing, 'cause I'm not leaving you anymore  
Believe it, hold on to me, never let me go  
__Hold on to me and, never let me go"_

_"Far Away" by Nickelback_


	25. White Tower Waiting

**43.** incomplete  
**Title:** White Tower Waiting  
**Word Count:** 233  
**Rating:** G

She was going to die. 24 hours, and they were going to put her up on that platform and execute her.

She wished Renji would stop making that face. She wished nii-sama would make some sign so she could pretend he cared. She wished Hanatarou wouldn't get in trouble trying to help her. She wished another Shiba wouldn't get killed and it be her fault. She wished Ichigo would listen to her just this once and _go home_. She wished to be able to see him one more time so her last vision of him wasn't full of blood and rain.

She really, really wished she cared at all she was going to die in 24 hours.

But she found it just wouldn't work. She'd just been broken to many times, in to many ways – shattered and then the fragments shattered again – so when she put herself back together as close as she could there were pieces missing that had gotten lost and left behind. She couldn't even align the pieces she had anymore, and more were lost each day, making more holes.

So many holes, and not enough room to care. That part of her must have been hit repeatedly, until every shred was lost.

So all she could do so incomplete was sit and wish and _not care_, and wait for time to catch up to her in another 24 hours.


	26. In friends

**71.** secrets  
**Title:** In-friends  
**Word Count:** 477  
**Rating:** G

Ichigo couldn't help the grudging smile on his face. As annoying as they were, he _had_ missed his friends the past couple of years. And once out of high school, they had calmed down somewhat.

"Ne, Ichigo, lets go on a blind double date!"

And yet, some things would never change – like Keigo being a girl-less loser.

"Pass."

"But Ichigo! You can't be a bachelor all your life! We must get you over your girl-phobia now, while you still have your youth to find the perfect wife!"

What the hell? He was most assuredly _not_ afraid of girls, a miracle since he'd grown up knowing Tatsuki. "I'm not scared of girls you idiot. I just don't think my fiancée would like to hear about my blind date."

"Yes, yes, make up exc- FIANCEE?" Keigo choked. Miziru almost tripped over his own feet. "You have a _fiancée_? Since _when_?"

"You proposed, what?" Ishida cast a look at him. "Sometime last month?"

"Five weeks." He grunted.

"Mmmm." Chad agreed.

"Proposed? To a _girl_?" Keigo demanded.

"_Yes_ to a girl you stupid-!"

"Why didn't you tell us Ichigo?" Miziru pulled out the puppy eyes. "Aren't we your friends? I didn't even know you were dating!"

"You don't trust us at all, you fiend!" Keigo ruined the image by wailing beside him.

"As Ichigo rolled his eyes, Orihime and Rukia exited the shop just ahead of them. Inoue saw them first, and grabbed the smaller girl by her arm to drag her over.

"Oh, look, everyone's all together!" She gushed happily.

"Inoue-san!" Keigo cried happily. But after learning she was dating Ishida, he now turned his eyes to Rukia. "And a cute friend!"

Ichigo slammed his fist into the back of Keigo's head as he slung an arm around Rukia's shoulders. "Keep to yourself, Keigo. It's why we can't take you anywhere."

Both Keigo and Miziru stared openly at the casual affection their asexual friend was displaying for this seeming total stranger. Naturally, it took all of two seconds for Keigo to explode.

"Ichigo, you fiend! You're championing a girl when you have a fiancée!"

"Oh really?" Rukia turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "You have some other fiancée I haven't been told about?"

"No," he rolled his eyes. "Just some idiot friends I haven't told you about."

Miziru's eyes were wide. Keigo was sputtering. Chad and Ishida were both unimpressed with the situation and amused with the other two. Orihime looked politely confused, but she was already daydreaming.

Rukia was looking at him with only one eyebrow raised, so he knew he had enough leeway, "Hey, I'm getting Byakyua as an in-law, so you can get a couple of idiots as family friends."

The second eyebrow went up but she was thinking it over. "Add Renji to my side, so with your two fools we'll call it even."

"Deal."


	27. Omens

**17.** what you see in the teacup  
**Title:** Omens  
**Word Count:** 194  
**Rating:** G

Kuchiki Byakuya didn't think of himself as superstitious.

He really was a very practical person. He ran his clan in a fair and logical manner. He didn't break mirrors, but it was ungraceful to break things, and while he was sometimes cautious of black cats that was only due to the possibility of them being Yoruichi in disguise.

He didn't walk under ladders or throw salt or have his palm read; it was stupid to walk under something that could fall on you and just how would it look if someone caught a Kuchiki elder throwing _salt_? As for palm reading, nobody but his little sister was allowed to hold his hand and live to talk about anything.

So because he was not superstitious, he set his teacup down a little harder than necessary and shoved it away before stiffly telling the servant to bring him some water. Because he was not superstitious, he resolutely did not think of said teacup for the rest of the evening.

When news came two weeks later of his sisters imminent marriage, he decided that heeding omens when they chose to come to you wouldn't be completely stupid.


	28. Worth It

**79.** art supplies  
**Title:** Worth It  
**Word Count:** 225  
**Rating:** G

"Here." Ichigo said gruffly.

And she just _stood_ there, blinking stupidly as he held the box out to her. He shook it under her nose. She still didn't take it, but came out of her supprise.

"What's this?"

He rolled his eyes. "Colored pencils. You can take them any time now."

She shot a quick scowl at him, but took the box. Then she turned it upside down and began to examine it. "These aren't the kind in the store."

"I didn't want to go back there. Don't be ungrateful."

"I'm not. She gave him a defensive frown. "But are these the nice kind, from that art store?"

"Yeah, so?"

"These are expensive." She informed him flatly, like he hadn't noticed the price tag when he'd gotten them. "And that store is halfway across town." As an afterthought, like he hadn't made the trip.

"Well, if they stop you from reading those outdated manga and making your vocabulary _worse_, then it's worth it."

She gave him a dirty look and kicked him in the shin.

"I'm taking a bath." He declared and stormed out limping.

It only occurred to him the next day as he was hurriedly stuffing his math homework back in his bag and telling the teacher he'd forgotten it that he had failed to get Rukia her own notebook to color in.


	29. Appearances

**65.** too human  
**Title:** Appearances  
**Word Count:** 399  
**Rating**: PG

There was defiantly something strange about Kuchiki.

Miziru wasn't always quite certain what it was, exactly, but it was strange. A strangeness that was, somehow, attractive. She was nice enough, he supposed, and very polite, even if her speech was sometimes outdated. He had observed that she liked small, fuzzy animals like bunnies, but she didn't flinch from bugs or snakes or any of the things girls usually made a fuss over.

She spent enough time with anti-social Ichigo to make the rumor mill rabid with speculation, but nothing could ever be proved, beside the fact that Ichigo put up with her easier and more frequently than most other people he hadn't known for years. Even better, in fact, than some of the people he had known for years.

There were moments when she would be different. A flash of violence out of nowhere that flattened Ichigo, covered with torrents of sparkles and loud concern, voiced in almost Shakespearian words.

It was as if she came from someplace different all together. There were times when she would look so lost when something simple came up, and yet so knowing when the unexplained happened.

Out of everyone, Ichigo probably knew her the best – she hardly spent any real time with anyone else. Usually, he wouldn't have any qualms about trusting Ichigo's judgment; as much of a jerk as he could be, his assessments of people were almost always correct.

Kuchiki seemed so sweet, but Ichigo complained how she was "a total bitch". She got confused sometimes over mundane things, but if she dragged Ichigo off she only had minor trouble doing it later. The way her eyes widened at intervals and when she got excited, she just looked so _young_. (It hadn't escaped him that Ichigo was usually the cause of – or on the receiving end of – her excitement.)

And sometimes she would look to old, to sad, to dark; and Ichigo would never be complaining or commenting. He would just sit next to her like he was trying to see what she was looking at with the resigned air of someone who knew he wouldn't understand even if he could. Sometimes he would catch the person that made her make that face and beat them up.

And Miziru concluded that it wasn't that Kuchiki was to strange that made her different - it was that she was to human.


	30. Storyteller

_I Live! My internet is back, so for the next few days (weeks) you'll get to enjoy the result of having a computer with a word program and no internet. Small installments, so as to lessen the shock that this idiot is not dead like you all hoped._

_FYI:I have no idea where this came from, so don't ask. The stupid theme stumped me, so I ended up doing what I usually do when this happens - give it to Inoue and make it random._

**8.** wear a crown of snapdragons  
**Title:** Storyteller  
**Word Count: **387  
**Rating: **G

Orihime was told that her imagination was unrivaled, but she really thought she had outdone herself this time.

Every week, she volunteered at the local library, offering to read books to small children. Hordes of five year olds came every Saturday to listen to a new fairytale.

She had yet to finish a written story.

"…And then, the Pollen Princess Rukia called out 'I will never give my kingdom of Flora Society to you, Fire Mage Aizen!' Her brother, the Frost Fairy Byakyua rushed to her aid, but was cut down by Aizen's lackey, Gin the Twigmaster.

"The Pollen Princess was about to be cut down by the evil fire crow Sokyuko, controlled by the Fire Mage, when suddenly – WOOOSH!" She threw her hands wide and all the children at her feet jumped in surprise, then leaned forward again in eager anticipation. "The Death Strawberry appeared and whisked her away from the danger!

" 'Idiot!' she yells at him. 'I told you not to come!' But he only tells her 'I told you I've come to save you. I wont let you die!' And then the Princess' long time friend the Baboon Lord Renji comes with the snapdragon crown known to all as the Hyo Guyko and places it on her head."

"What happens then?" one little girl squealed in delight and awe. "Does the princess finally beat the Evil Fire mage?"

"Well," Orihime tells them with a secret smile, "With the Prince by her side and the crown made by Master Seer Uraharra on her head, she became the Flower Queen, ruler of all Flora Society!"

All the children were cheering and gasping and sighing in delight and relief. "What next, what next?" a small boy demanded, tugging on her skirt.

Orihime beamed down at them. "With her powers restored and the new Queen safe, the Death Strawberry rushed forward and struck down the evil fire crow. The fire mage was unable to stop the new royal couple, and he was defeated by the new rulers of Flora Society.

"So the new Queen and her prince rode away on their lion stead Kon into the forest where they ruled and lived Happily Ever After."

The children cheered and Orihime smiled. It never hurt to let young minds dream of the Happy Endings that might have been.

_00000_

_P.S. If someone where willing to draw this for me (Flora Society, not Orihime in the library), not only will I add the link here for all to see, but will write a theme from the POV of any character of the artists choosing, in a situation of their request. I'll work one of my unused themes in somehow..._


	31. VIP Backstage

**95.** all the world's a stage  
**Title:** VIP Backstage  
**Word Count:** 178  
**Rating: **G

Humans were a bit silly, Rukia decided.

A complete paradox, creatures that were so complex and yet fooled so easily. All she had to do was put on a show and everyone just lapped it up.

Except Ichigo. He had a backstage pass to her show, and so never believed everything she said or did when around other people.

Everyone wore masks: Jesters, Tough-Guys, Daydreamers, Polite Gentlemen, Cold Polite Gentlemen, and so many, many others she hand never seen. It was fascinating, and somewhat entertaining, to watch life's opera in motion.

It was like everyone was the star in their own personal play, with others as supporting characters and guest stars. All the world was the stage and everyone in it played their parts, put on their show, and eventually ended up in the audience of Soul Society to watch the stage and the performances that ended and began forever.

Ichigo may have had her backstage pass, but Rukia didn't mind. Every actor had to relax now and then, and it was nice to rest in like company.


	32. White Tower Waiting2

_Check my bio before you chew me out for lateness. There was horrible circumstances and vile swearing involved._

**31.** have it your way  
**Title:** White Tower Waiting2 (Reprise)  
**Word Count: **325  
**Rating: **G

He could see it.

The massive white pillar had been one of the first things he'd noticed about the Court of Pure Souls. It was hard to miss, being 100 stories tall and in the middle of everything. Yet the eyes tend to skim over it, being part of the background.

Just like Rukia herself.

After beating the information out of Ikkaku, he made a straight line for that spire on the horizon. Because she was there, waiting.

What pissed him off the most was he had no idea why she was there. Oh, he knew why _Soul Society_ had brought her there. He just had no clue why _Rukia_ was there. Contrary to what outsiders might think, he couldn't tell what she was thinking most of the time. He wasn't a mindreader, dammit. He could decern her moods, but her thoughts were a total mystery.

Her thoughts, her reasoning behind all this, made no sense. And he hated being left in the dark. She said it was nothing at school, but seemed dissapointed about it. She wrote him a letter to hide himself and be safe, even thanking him, but coded it with more of her bad drawings like it was some sort of game.

She kicked his hand away and forbade him to follow, when her eyes screamed of the same dark, frightened, hopelessness and desprate plea for help as all his memories of June rain.

And he had no idea what she wanted, what she really thought about this. So he reverted to what he found worked best when dealing with Rukia; when he didn't know what she wanted, he just did what he wanted, and her opinions be damned. Her fault for not being clear.

He didn't want her to die. So he'd save her. And hopefully they would have the time for him to learn to read her mind. Because Gods know she can never learn to just say it.


	33. Best Christmas Ever

**62.** my heart in a box  
**Title:** Best Christmas Ever  
**Word Count: **551  
**Rating: **PG

Ichigo was getting annoyed.

It was Christmas Eve. So not only was his fruitcake family being stranger than normal in "festive spirit", but he and Rukia were due at Ishida's house for a Christmas party in an hour.

Only Rukia has been missing since noon.

Which meant she had been AWOL for about four hours now, and no one knew where she went. Which could only be Bad, because she was probably working on a suprise and those were usually a disaster.

"Ichi-nii!" Karin was calling him. "Rukia-nee just called. She said to just go to the party and she'll meet you there."

"Give me the phone." he barked. "Where the hell is she?"

"Already hung up and she didn't say." Karin went back to her magizine, uninteristed.

Ichigo snarled. "Woman better have a good explination."

Ichigo showed up at Ishida's house promptly at five. "Where is she?"

The Quincy just waved him in. "I don't know what you're talking about. Sit down and have a drink befoe you start making accusaions."

Ichigo growled but complied. He became even more agitated as he found Rukia was not already at the party, and did not arrive over the next hour.

When 6:30 came around, Ichigo was ready to tug his coat on and go look for her. He'd checked his Shinigami badge every five minutes for the past hour, and was ready to declare it broken.

Before he could get to the door, however, Inoue caught him. "You can't leave now, Kurosaki-kun! We're opening presents!"

"I'll be back later, after I find Rukia." he tried.

"Just a few minutes." Inoue could be stubborn when she wanted to. "Just open you're really huge present. "Everyone's dying to see what it is."

He reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged back into the other room. The present in question was a box that went up to his waist topped with a ribbon curled bow, covered in sparkly wrapping paper.

He was suprised and suddenly suspicious when the tag read it was from Rukia.

He fixed Ishida with a pointed look. "Anything you want to tell me now?"

The other boy just pushed his glasses up. "Not really."

A final glance, and Ichigo proceeded to pull the bow off and the wrapping paper from the top of the box. Then jumped away in alarm when it rocked suddenly like it had been kicked.

"The Hell?" he demanded crossly.

But the top popped off by itself and suddenly he couldn't think because Rukia was crawling out of his present. Quite akwardly too, he noted, because-

"...the hell?" much weaker this time.

She was wearing some sort of french maid outfit, complete with high heels, a skirt that certainly didn't fit the fingertip rule, a black ribbon bow around her neck, all those frills and black lace - were those _cat_ ears on her head?

"What?" Rukia was now fully out of the box, and placed her hands on hips. "Ishida-kun said this was some sort of human tradition, and even made the outfit for me. You'd better appreciate it, 'cause I've been sitting in a box for two hours for this, you know."

And Ichigo wasn't sure if he should hit that smirking bastard Ishida for this or kiss him for the greatest Christmas present ever.

_0000000_

_I frequent Livejournal IchiRuki (as a lurker) and my email is open. Anyone who draws Rukia like this and sends/shows it to me will own my _soul_. (And will get a giftfic of any theme of their choice, which is a much bigger prize than my soul.)_


	34. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

**90.** why can't i?  
**Title:** To Sleep, Perchance to Dream  
**Word Count: **367  
**Rating:** PG (one f-word)

Rukia watched her reflection in the mirror, watched as it frowned and the line appeared between her brows and her eyes tilted at an unhappy slant.

_Why?_

Six weeks. She'd been trapped in the human world for six weeks. Six weeks of having a physical body that was slow and ungainly. Six weeks of having to rely on another to do her job. Six weeks of living in someone's _closet_ and borrowing (stealing) said someone's little sisters clothes.

Six weeks since the safe voice in her dreams left.

_Why can't I hear you?_

She wasn't getting her powers back. Six _fucking_ weeks and she wasn't an inch stronger than she had been that night. If anything, she'd say she was getting weaker, but she blamed the human emotions she couldn't quite quell.

_Why can't I do this alone?_

Without Shirayuki's calm voice to regulate her dream, the memories of her sleep were becoming more and more violent and dark.

Six weeks of nightmares and she was seriously considering never sleeping again.

_Why can't I deal with this?_

The nightmares had been there for months after Kaien-dono was killed, getting so bad that she _had_ stopped sleeping for a while. In those times, she would sneak out of her room when her brother and the rest of the house thought she was finally asleep and practice with her Zanpaktou until she fell asleep in the dojo – and woke up screaming hours later.

It was why she went. The dojo wasn't directly part of the house, so no one could hear her.

_Why?_

Then one night, she fell asleep and instead of the blood and the hollow she dreamed of white snow.

But now the voice and snow was gone and she was, once again, sleepless.

She was not sure where Shirayuki had gone, but she had heard her new roommate stir a few times in the night, like no nightmares was something new. So while she desperately wanted her sword back and to be able to sleep again, a small part of her hoped Shirayuki had gone to Ichigo as she suspected, and he dreamed of snow instead of rain.

At least one of them should be sleeping.


	35. Mine's Bigger

**73.** my blade as my pride  
**Title:** Mine's Bigger  
**Word Count:** 453  
**Rating:** PG

"No."

Rukia tried to suppress the snarl that wanted to escape, but used all her Kuchiki training to manage not hitting the orange haired jerk, so the growl went unchecked.

"Ichigo." She began again in her most patient manner, trying to explain this to him for the fifth time. "You can't really stop me. You can't lock me away and expect me to never see the outside world again. I've got my own friends and my own life, and I refuse to live it at your discretion. Besides, I was telling you where I was going, not asking."

"But why Renji?" he demanded in something that was **not** a sulk. "Bayakyua I can understand, 'cause he's family and practically royalty, so he can't get out much, but why _Renji_? If he wants to see you, he can drag his ass over here to do it. You shouldn't have to go all the way over there just for _him._"

"So this is about Renji?" she asked, sounding incredulous. "Why do you two have to act like children? Why don't you like me going to see Renji on my own?"

"'Cause." He grumbled.

"That's not an answer."

"What if something happens? Renji can't protect you."

This time she did hit him. "I don't need protecting!"

When his breath came back, he finally said, "I know, but I'd feel better if you didn't take that chance. I can protect you better than tattoo freak."

She decided to let the protecting thing slide for the moment. "Says who? Renji has been practicing, he wont be so easy to beat as last time, and I heard he still beat you up pretty bad."

"I can beat 'em." Ichigo insisted stubbornly.

"How do you know?"

"Well, uh…" He trailed off as he looked for a viable reason. "Zangetsu's bigger."

Rukia gaped. "You're kidding." She forced out finally. "You think you're better suited because you have a bigger _sword_?"

"Hey!" Came the protest. "Swords are a matter of pride among Shinigami, and also among men, so that makes it doubly important!"

"…I can't believe this stupidity." She rolled her shoulders slowly as she pressed one hand to her forehead, as if it could stave off the oncoming headache.

"But it's true. Zangetsu is bigger than Zabimaru."

"That's not the point. _Men_. They leave testosterone to make all their decisions." She finally looked up at him. "And anyway, I may go visit Soul Society because of Renji," She leaned up on tiptoes to peck him on the lips, "but I always come back because of you."

Ichigo grinned wolfishly. "Ha! I _can_ protect you better than tattoo freak!"

Rukia decided beating the crap out of him would be a moral service.


	36. Cracked Reflection

**11.** mirrors of cloud and sky  
**Title:** Cracked Reflection  
**Word Count: **391  
**Rating:** G

In the weeks following the Deathberry Party's departure, Rukia had to admit she was a little startled at the turn her dreams had taken. Besides that one intense night in the tower, she had dreamed of Kaien-dono only two or three times, total.

Instead, her dreams revolved around a cracked, blue sky.

After studying the image in her mind after one awakening, she concluded that it was what she had seen when Aizen had made his escape from Soul Society. The clear blue sky with a few wisps of clould, cracked like a mirror showing the blackness beyond and the monsters within the looking glass.

Rukia was uncertain why this image would disturb her unconsious more than Kaien-dono's death. Certainly, it was the moment where the man behind all the efforts to have her killed had escaped, but he'd been more or less driven off.

Not liking that she had no idea what about that image made her so uneasy, she set herself to figure it out. Renji was quite disturbed when he followed her up to Sokyuko Hill and stood back while she went to the spot where Aizen had held her up by the neck and ripped through her body. Slowly, she tipped her head back and examened the place where the sky and been broken.

It was completly unmarred, but that didn't stop her frown.

Just as she was getting ready to give up, her eyes for a moment superimposed the steel and concrete of the human world over the view of Soul Society, under the broken sky. Directly under the cracks, where the monsters arms were reaching was a flash of orange hair and black robes.

Rukia stilled for a long moment as she carefully looked over the view of Soul Society and the unbroken sky, and understood.

"Renji."

"What? Can we go now? This place creeps me out."

"What trouble is Ichigo in now? Tell me."

There was a long silence from him. Then, "I'm not even going to ask how you do that." A slow intake of breath. "He fought with the Arrancar. And lost."

"...I see."

Her greatest fear was that the cracks would she'd seen in the sky would be mirrored in the human world, and the monsters would decend on the happily oblivious population and one substitute shinigami.

"I'm going with you."


	37. Make Believe Reality

**26.** daydream believer  
**Title:** Make Believe Reality  
**Word Count:** 265  
**Rating:** G

No one liked to dream more than Inoue Orihime. She could spend hours off in her own world. The worlds and dreams she made up didn't always make sense, but neither did the world everyone lived in. Better to admit the world didn't make sense than to try justifying the irregularities.

Just because. That was the way the world worked, and the way she set up her own fantasies. Just because. That's the way things are.

In her daydreams, there were princes, and dragons, and all the things most make-believe stories had. People thought she'd watched to many cartoons as a child.

The truth was that most of her daydreams were more like the twists in real life than in the books. It didn't make sense the way life didn't.

There was a beloved princess, but she married the quiet archer that sewed her wedding dress.

There was a giant with monstrous strength, but he was the gentlest of them all.

There was a cold noble; but he loved the stars most of all.

And there was a prince, but he never loved the princess. Instead, he fell for the star and went up in the heavens just for her.

And the star fell with him back to earth.

And Orihime knew the only thing her daydreams really had in common with the stories was that they still had more or less happy endings. But they all made their own, dreams and happy endings, so making sense wasn't first priority to any of them.

But also just like life, that's just the way things are.


	38. White Tower Waiting3

**69.** someday my prince will come  
**Title:** White Tower Waiting3 (Fairytale Blues)  
**Word Count: **170  
**Rating: **G

Rukia knew that Inoue was quite obsessed with fairytales.

The other girl had told her all sorts of stories that could never be true, simply because life never turned out that perfect.

Rukia liked to live only in reality. She had no patience for them, mostly because she had no idea how to deal with them. They didn't occur naturally, in real life, so she never had to react to them.

Even now, there was nothing fairytale about her situation. She wasn't a princess, she was a convict. She wasn't locked in a palace, she was in prison. Princes didn't come to rescue criminals (assuming Ichigo was a prince, which he was NOT).

She didn't live in a fairytale, so she didn't bother with them.

When he landed in front of her on the bridge, kneeling, his reiratsu strong and safe, there was a ghost of burning confusion under the shock.

When the fairytale and real life does intersect and the prince arrives, what was she supposed to do then?


	39. Art of Compromise

**35.** a string of pearls  
**Title:** Art of Compromise  
**Word Count:** 287  
**Rating:** PG

Ichigo was scowling darkly. This was the _last_ place he wanted to be at the moment.

"It's tacky." He declared to himself.

Well, okay, so maybe it wasn't quite the last place, per se, but it _was_ very low down there; somewhere above, say Soul Society – but definitely lower than his father's check up room.

"It's useless and a waste of money."

And if he'd rather put up with his fathers bizarre check up procedures (how had the man gotten his license, let alone his degree?), then he was definitely someplace unpleasant.

"It's gaudy and clunky and – and-"

He glared at the glass case in front of him as if it had done him some personal wrong. Maybe, in an obscure way, it had.

"It's just so _tacky_."

It was that things fault he was here in the first place. He growled angrily, causing the little old lady on his left to edge away nervously.

"Miss." He finally ground out to the slightly frightened young girl behind the counter.

But if this is what Rukia wanted, it was at least a more sentimental gift than the Chappy the Rabbit Pez dispenser for their second anniversary.

When the girl handed him the wrapped box with a polite smile, he jerked his head in some semblance of a nod before stalking away.

On his way out of the department store, he went through the women's clothing and paused, before beginning to grin.

If he had to get her that god-awful granny pearl necklace, he should be able to see her in something _he_ wanted. (It was unfortunate that Rukia still didn't understand why some men may request lingerie from their spouses.)

He began his hunt in the nightwear isle.


	40. On the Edge of the Soul Slayer

**70.** walking the razor's edge  
**Title:** On Edge of the Soul Slayer  
**Word Count:** 479  
**Rating:** G

Zangetsu was pleased.

Ichigo could hear him now. He wasn't always listening, true, but he knew his _name_. He had released his real form from the shadowed immatation of Shirayuki's elegant body. He'd stopped fighting with pretend Shirayuki and started fighting with _him_.

And Zangetsu had to admit that everything here, in this sideways world, seemed to begin and end with Kuchiki Rukia. This place rained and rained while he slept, hinding from it. It stopped for a while when he was first awake, but Shirayuki - on order from Rukia, an a little foul tempered at being here - kicked him awake, dragged him out onto the damp street, and told him he'd better get to learning to fight and calling Ichigo.

When Shirayuki left, the rain had returned in torrents. But he knew how dissapointed she would be with him if he went into hiding again, and instead stayed in the open and called until his Shinigami could hear him. He was finally released, and the world sang to be going after her. After Kuchiki Rukia.

Wounded by the one who forced Shirayuki away, Zangetsu found Ichigo's anger and desperation mirrored in himself. But the rain would not come any harder - they were going to make it stop completly, like when Shirayuki held residence.

So he called again. The second time he went to Ichigo, the second time he had been broken, he taught the boy the rest of his own first lessons; "Retreat and you will age", "Hesitate and you will die", "Only go forward", and now "To just fight is meaningless. To just live is meaningless. You must win to give meaning to either." All learned, painfully, completly, at the hands of Shirayuki.

Then with Yourichi watching, he taught Ichigo how to _fight_. As he had been shown, as he had learned, and a secret part of him hoped Shirayuki was pleased with that. They reached Ban Kai. They defeated Soul Society itself and saved Kuchiki Rukia. And the rain had stopped.

When the Allenkar appeared and Ichigo lost faith, the rain had threatened to come again. But before it could fall, before Ichigo shut his ears to Zangetsu's desperate voice forever, _she_ came back and stopped his nonsense before it could esclate to real damage.

This world may belong to Kurosaki Ichigo, but it had been (re)defined by Kuchiki Rukia, and she would never let him fall from the sword edge he walked. Drag him down it kicking and screaming, more like. Whenever Ichigo threatened to fail, he just had to shove a thought about Rukia at him, and the mere _memory_ would grab him by the scruff of his neck and keep him on the straight and narrow.

"I am pleased." Zangetsu told her, and he must have sounded like it as well, because Shirayuki smiled at his response to her query.


	41. Hate to Love

**100.** love at first sight  
**Title:** Hate to Love  
**Word Count:** 305  
**Rating:** G

For Ichigo and Rukia, it was hardly love at first sight.

She was cold, confident, and aloof. Complete disregard for the human right next to her, not a glance or second thought. Unimportant.

He was arrogant, cocky, and had no regard for authority. He didn't like being ignored either, and let her know with a firm kick.

Their first days were spent hating each other.

He was furious that she would _dare_ to crash into his life. Taking over his school and his closet and his reputation like she was fully entitled to them, but they were _his_, dammit, and how dare she just rearrange them to her liking.

She was appalled that he would _dare_ to undermine her work. She was Shinigami and she helped people, had lost the ability to continue doing so because of him, so it certainly was his responsibility to help her a little in continuing to protect spirits.

Their first few missions were spent learning each other.

She was the one who knew how to hunt hollows, how to send off wandering souls, how to dredge up a few weak kido and heal his mistakes.

He was the one who could fight, who could prove they were people worth trusting, who protected her when this new weakness got the better of her.

While respect grew, the hate grew. But it's said that there is a fine line between love and hate, and neither Ichigo or Rukia had ever been good with toeing lines. They always, _always_ went where they wanted, and jumped every fence, crossed every line, and broke every rule they had to if it was in their way. Neither really cared much for such things, and tended to walk in both sides quite often.

So in the end, maybe it really _was_ love at first sight.

Kinda.


	42. FAQ

**5.** a temporary heaven  
**Title:** FAQ  
**Rating:** PG (language)  
**Word Count:** 275

"What's Heaven like?"

In one Kurosaki Ichigo's part-time profession, he heard this question quite a bit.

At first, he gave typical fifteen year old answers: "I don't care", "How the hell would I know?", "It doesn't matter, you're going anyway", and his personal favorite - "Do I _Look_ Like I Give A Damn Glare (TM)".

After having actually _been_ there, he had to revise most of his original assessments ("It sucks", "It's crazy", "People chase you around trying to kill you _again_", and "I'm just glad you're going and not me".). It took awhile, but he managed to find a somewhat neutral answer that wouldn't send the spirit into a frenzied fit of panic if Rukia wasn't around, or a sound ass-kicking if she _was_.

"Soul Society is not Heaven." he corrected gruffly, and let Rukia babble on about the place like some happy travel agent. Ichigo watched her work Rukia Audience Magic Sparkles of Shojo (TM) and felt something loosen ever so slightly in his chest.

_What's Heaven like?_ Heaven wasn't a _place_ or a _time_ or a _circumstance_. It was violet eyes and raven hair and a white sword, iron will and brash pride and broken shards of innocence. Most of the time, Heaven didn't seem much like Heaven at all - and that was just fine with him - but there were moments (a brush of fingers, a glance, a flash of fang, a _smile_) and it was a temporary heaven, undiluted. But only ever temporary, to keep him from overdosing on perfection and dying of this (these) feeling(s).

So one Kurosaki Ichigo came to this conclusion:

Heaven was a bitch. (Just like life.)


	43. Healing

**36.** scars  
**Title:** Healing  
**Word Count: **225  
**Rating: **G

Renji was from the streets. He grew up with Rukia and their gang of friends. A family of abandoned children. They struggled to get enough water for everyone and to stay away from the creepier adults who would do strange things to them if caught.

So of course, you get scars.

Shinigami get scars too. There's lots of danger in this line of work, and lots of injuries. Renji himself had quite a few scars from both days, street and shinigami. He knew Rukia did to. He was secretly proud to know the story behind each one.

When she had first come back from the human world to be locked up, he'd been tempted to go back and kill that orange haired punk again. In three months she'd somehow aquired a multitude of new scars, one of which being a hollow bite that left teeth marks all across her left shoulder, and the worst of which was a second cut on her heart and physce to mirror the still bleeding Kaien scar.

He was no doctor. But as they prepared to return to the human world, he was prepared to drag Rukia along if he had to. Kurosaki Ichigo may not have been much of a doctor himself, but it must run in the family because he somehow healed her wounds like no one else.


	44. Full Circle

**25.** when does the river end?  
**Title:** Full Circle  
**Word Count: **364  
**Rating: **G

Ichigo found her on the grassy riverbank, arms tucked under her knees drawn close, eyes forward an unfocused. The very late afternoon sun sat low somewhere on the horizon, and even though the sky was beginning to bleed into midnight blue, the water was painted a bloody crimson and burning orange, streaky violet.

That glassy-eyed blank look always worried him.

"Nice view." he stood beside her quietly and waited for a response. None was forthcoming.

They stayed there like that for long moments as the water turned more red and the sky more dark. When the river started to turn black from the night she finally spoke.

"When does the river end?"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her, confusion, concern, and annoyance raising and receding like the tides. "What's that supposed to mean?"

With her eyes still forward she sounded like she was talking to herself.

"The world and everything in it has a certain place. Small pieces are insignificant to the whole, yet the whole can only be made by small pieces. This is the concept 'All is one, one is all.' By this law is the flow of the world. We follow this flow and it's laws. The river of time and the world only goes in one direction: forward."

She faltered suddenly, and when her voice returned it was much softer. He continued to listen.

"Rivers only flow forward, and only downhill. So that leads you to ask, where does it end?" _Where does the world end?_

Ichigo stared down at her for a long moment, before he sighed. "All that philosophy and you're still so stupid."

He was forced to do a funny undignified skip to keep Rukia's swipe from breaking his kneecap. "Everything also comes full circle. When it ends it just starts over again."

That stilled her attempts at violence. "The end is the beginning by another name." She contemplated that for a moment, then smirked up at him. "Of course. Going in circles is all you know how to do anyway." She ignored his indignant yelp and stood, brushing grass from her long skirt. "Idiot. Lets go home."

He grumbled, but followed anyway.

_00000000_

_'All is one, one is all' was shamelessly stolen from Fullmetal Alchemist. Look to Isumi Curtis for such worldly brilliance, not me._


	45. Kuchiki Fan

**22.** like a fan unfolding  
**Title:** Kuchiki Fan  
**Word Count:** 158  
**Rating:** G

Coming from a noble family, Youruichi could appreciate Kuchiki Rukia's caution more than most. The pressure to perform, to set examples, to be _perfect_. It was nauseating.

Rukia was like Youruichi – a street rat, simple girl at heart. They both hated all the show, and neither liked all the pomp and circumstance. It was stressful and a waste of time.

She was a fan, lacquered and beautiful and always tightly shut. No one knew what was inside, the pattern never seeing daylight and being guarded jealously.

But lately, she thought someone had seen the inside of that fan. She thought it was fitting that this outsider _child_ had so easily opened what they had been prying at for years.

He would never open her carelessly to someone who could hurt her, or fade the pattern within. He would guard her, and the greatest thing is she would continue to open to him, and trust him to do so.


	46. Champion

**72.** we can be heros  
**Title:** Champion  
**Word Count: **266  
**Rating:** G

"I will!"

"Kon, would you shut up?!"

"You don't deserve it! I will protect her!"

"What?! You can't do anything!"

"Can to!"

"I can!"

"Would you two morons _shut up_?" Ichigo and Kon froze at the chilling voice from the window. Rukia climbed the rest of the way in and fixed them both with her best idiot repelling glare. "Now, what are you arguing about?"

Ichigo's face flamed, which meant it was something stupid enough for her to hit them over. Kon was not as silent.

"Nee-san! I can be your hero!"

An eyebrow was twitching dangerously. "My hero? Where'd you get such a stupid idea?"

"Your manga." Kon told her, not the least bit repentent. Ichigo was making a strange choking noise.

Rukia decided it was time to draw him into this conversation. "So, Ichigo," her look was anything but sweet, even if her tone was dripping with sugar. "You want to champion me?"

A few seconds was all he needed to find his voice. "Like hell."

"Well, that's good." She graced them both with a highly preditory smile. "I don't need one, I can take care of myself. But don't worry," she flashed her teeth, "I'll still be sure to protect the two of you as well."

She was out the window and on the sidewalk by the time either recovered enough to move. She knew because they both started screaming at her from said window.

And with all of them protecting each other, it would be okay. They could all be heroes.

This world and the next didn't have enough of them anyway.


	47. Twenty Questions

**49. **conversations in the dark  
**Title:** Twenty Questions  
**Word Count: **160  
**Rating: **PG (cussing, f word used)

"Rukia?"

"…Mmm?"

"Where were you?"

"Whazzat?"

"Where were you? Today?"

"W's out."

"Out were?"

"Went for a walk. Why?"

"…Did you visit him?"

"Who?"

"_Him_."

"_Him_ doesn't tell me anything Ichigo. You'll have to give me a name."

"…Kaien."

"No. Should I have?"

"Well, no, but…"

"If you're not going to finish your sentences, then go back to sleep you fool."

"Rukia?"

"_What_?"

"…Do you think about him?"

"Think about _who_? I'm to tired for your stupid guessing games."

"Kaien."

"Sometimes."

"…When you're with me?"

"Ichigo, Kaien-dono is the last person on my mind when I'm with you."

"I don't remind you of Kaien?"

"No."

"How come?"

"Kaien-dono wasn't a _total moron_ for starters."

"Hey!"

"Go back to sleep, Ichigo."

"But-!"

"Just go the fuck to sleep, dammit! Don't make me gag you in the closet."

"Wait-"

"Stop worrying about it. I'll beat up Renji in the morning. That jackass, putting stupid ideas in your head."

"…Alright. 'Night."

"Goodnight, idiot."


	48. Lost in Translation

**84.** boquet  
**Title:** Lost in Translation  
**Word Count: **702  
**Raiting: **PG

Sometimes he really hated being the guy in their relationship.

Not that he'd want to be the girl, mind you, but when the fought (which was quite often), and it was his fault (not quite as often, but still frequent enough), society and rukia's outdated romance manga mandated that he do something (sorta) romantic to properly apoligize. He couldn't just say he was sorry and they have make-up sex. It had to be _thoughtful_, and at least passingly romantic.

And we're back to being pissed he was a guy. Rukia could just wear a skimpy night gown, say she's sorry and they have make-up sex. _He_ was required to think about it from every angle and possibly spend money. And people wondered why he disliked Society.

He stopped in the small shopping district near their appartment. Spending money, he decided, was probably the fastest way to gain safe passage back inside the house.

He passed over the candy store. Bringing back food of any kind was a tactfully Bad Idea, as dinner and Rukia's lack of skill with it was what the fight had been about. If he got anything edible, she'd likely see it as an even more subtle slander of her cooking instead of an apology and toss him out their fourth floor balcony instead of the door.

He also passed over the bookstore and craft store. Somehow, he didn't think just getting her the next volume of her favorite series was going to do it. The craft store was ignored only because he didn't want to explain to Ishida why he'd been thrown out this time. He wasn't that desperate. Yet, anyway.

His eyes stopped at the small shop at the end of the street. After eyeing it carefully, like it would bare teeth and bite him, he finally opened the door and slipped inside.

Maybe he wouldn't have to tell Ishida about this one after all.

"Here. These are yours."

Rukia blinked at him, very confused to see him on their doormat handing her a bundle of flowers.

Confused, but willing enough. She took them and let him back into the house, so the flowers have served their purpose.

"Why flowers?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Well, they seemed like something you'd enjoy, and the lady in the store said these ones say 'I'm sorry' so..."

Her eyes went wide. "Flowers in this world _talk_?" Rukia's eyes narrowed at the blossoms in her hands, then put her ear close, as if expecting to hear them whispering. Her frown deepened. "I can't hear them."

"Of course not. They're just flowers, they don't say anything."

She pulled them away from her face and wrinkled her nose in confusion. "But if they don't talk how can they say you're sorry?"

"It's symbolism. Different types and colors stand for different things, like a language."

She eyed him, then the not talking flowers. "So by looking at a certain flower of a certain color, it's supposed to say something specific?"

"Yeah."

Ichigo was unprepared for the reemergance of pissy Rukia. Her hands fisted, one still holding the stems, and proped themselves on her hips. "I don't speak flower, stupid. How am I supposed to understand that?"

"I don't speak flower either! But I know these ones mean 'I'm Sorry'."

Rukia shook her head and scoffed at him. "Only you are a big enough moron to buy me something neither of us understans."

He let it go and let her have the last word in order to end the arguement. "It's to late to make a mess we have to clean up later. Let's go out to eat."

Rukia tilted her head like she was searching for some sort of trap, but he was playing off her rarely seen lazy streak, and agreed. "I'll just put these in some water and get my coat."

As they were decending the steps of their complex, Ichigo was grateful. Because when he botched being romantic, Rukia was either to oblivious or to understanding of his character to care.

(In reality, Rukia spoke fluent moronese and so alway understood what Ichigo was trying to say; she just wanted to teach him a language more intelligent.)


	49. Lonely Walk

**83.** it's lonely out there  
**Title: **Lonely Walk  
**Word Count: **340  
**Rating:** PG (language)

Kon was wet, dirty, lost, and temporarily homeless.

"Stupid Ichigo…"

How dare that bastard kick him out. He wanted to spend time with Nee-san too. He couldn't hog her, dammit!

"Who does he think he is…orange-haired bastard."

Everything was cold and grey, unfriendly and threatening. He was Kon! King of New York! He would not be scared!

But he was, alone on the street where any dog or axeman or Yuzu could grab him and torture him for all of eternity.

Kon paused. If it wasn't him out on this dangerous street, it could be _Rukia-nee-san_ out here. She may have her powers back, but she should never be out here alone where an axeman or Yuzu or hollow could grab her and make her helpless again.

So that, Kon decided, was why he was here. So nee-san wouldn't have to, and would never see those horrors ever again. Perhaps Ichigo was looking after her like he promised after all.

Later that night when he was home, and Rukia-nee-san had dunked him hurriedly in hot water before escaping upstairs to wring him out with a towel, he felt better. The fight the two Shingaimi had earlier seemed to be forgotten, and their ease with each other was a relief.

"Nee-san…" He glanced up at her as she ruffled the towel and squeezed the dampness out of his stuffing.

"What?"

"You shouldn't fight with Ichigo." That got him a raised eyebrow and a bemused look

"Why?"

He shifted some to look at her properly. "Because it's cold and lonely out there." One paw went to point at the window. "You don't deserve to be left alone like that. But he's enough of an idiot to toss you out anyway."

She was thoughtful as she finished with the towel and began to fold it. "That's true," she told him, slow and careful, "It is lonely. But," At that moment, Ichigo walked in and looked at them. Rukia-nee just smiled. "But there's no need to worry. He's just good at picking up strays."


	50. White Tower Waiting4

**55.** wishing on dying stars  
**Title:** White Tower Waiting4 (When All Other Lights Go Out)  
**Word Count:** 830  
**Rating:** PG-13 (language)

_Ichigo sank into the hot spring with a small groan, letting the hot water wash over bruised muscles and cut skin. The steam rose in ghostly waves, concealing even more injuries from Youruichi and the rest of the world._

_Zangetsu had been harsh._

_Not that Ichigo wanted him to let up; not in the slightest. He was running out of time._

_  
He could feel it, escaping with a vindictive pleasure to places unknown. It seemed that the extra days they had accidentally gained from their impromptu meeting and subsequent chase with the garbage-eater-thing in the tunnel was constantly being stolen back, with interest, leaving even fewer precious hours than they had been counting on._

_Ichigo sighed and tipped his head back, face upturned to the encroaching night darkness, then closed his eyes and dreamed._

He doubted very much that Uraharra had told Yourichi everything about the doll that brought Zangetsu to the real world. Ichigo suspected that she would have never even considered doing this if he had, and if that really was the case, old sandal-hat knew that and had not said anything for just that reason already.

He didn't think it wise to waste one of the few considerate things Uraharra Kiske had probably ever done in his entire life, even if it was as per quota obscenely dangerous.

Ichigo dreamed, and the war with Zangetsu continued.

_There was no mental rest, no break, in this test. When the deadline of three days was made, it meant _three days_, and nothing as petty as a sleep was considered. He would have to succeed, or Zangetsu would eventually kill him - but then, that was also on par with Uraharra's usual. _

He landed hard, skidding several feet before the concrete graciously stopped him. The edges of his vision were grey as he struggled to focus on which of the several Zangetsu were real. The copies blurred and swung crazily for a handful of seconds, and in that time Ichigo managed to work out that it was the concussion he had picked up several exchanges earlier that was causing the trouble, not Zangetsu himself.

"Get up Ichigo." The sword stood where he had been when Ichigo had been thrown, watching him with a keen stare from behind his glasses. Ichigo didn't move. "The rain is washing away the stars."

That didn't make any sense to him, and as the sentence registered, his gaze drifted from the black figure to the dark sky at the wrong angle. Storm clouds rolled across the night sky in this inner reflection of himself, and beneath their onslaught only six stars glowed weakly.

Six fixed stars and a seventh falling across the stormy divide.

"They need you to get up." Zangetsu urged, but Ichigo heard a reprimand about his reckless stupidity. He didn't move.

_Protect them._ He asked of the largest, giving off the gentlest light.

"You can't stay there." (Lazy moron.)

_Be safe_. He prayed to another that struggled, and yet was cheerful just the same.

"This isn't going to help you." (I'm talking to you, Ichigo!)

_Keep living._ He urged one of a pair that was further away from the rest, but were gravitating slowly inward to them.

"I'll drag you to you're feet if I must." (Don't you dare waste my time with this nonsense, Ichigo.)

_Be brave_. To the other who wavered, but chased the tail of that comet.

"Did you want to live?" (What do you think you're doing on you're face like that?)

_Hold onto you're pride._ He teased the one that held the others in line around him.

"Did you want to fight?" (I'll give you a fight, you rude little shit.)

_Have faith._ He begged the nearest.

"Did you want to win?" (I thought you made me a promise?)

_Give back blame for what wasn't your fault._ He wished on that falling star as it fled. _Forgive yourself._

"What are you going to do, Ichigo?"

His eyes fell closed.

_They opened again to his reflection in the hot spring, fuzzy and unfocused in a gaze that failed to pass the storm clouds in his minds eye. He looked back up, trying to find the stars he had wished on beyond the stone and cloud. _

_He would have to hurry and catch up with them. Because even when the clouds moved in to hide all his stars from view, they would always be chasing her and he had never needed his eyes to find her. And when they were all met again, he would run her down and lead that falling star back to her place in the sky among them all, where she belonged._

Ichigo staggered to his feet, forcing focus into his eyes and confidence into his stance. "Bring it on, old man."

Zangetsu smiled in satisfaction, and Ichigo could swear he felt that illusive star come into their sights.

_**(When night falls onto this town  
**__**Somewhere in the world, the sun rises)  
**__**-Loop, Sakamoto Maaya**_

_00000_

_My long hiatus is finally over, at least for now. So of course the first thing you'll get from me is my favorite running theme-string. Enjoy!_

_PS. The song "Loop" by Sakamoto Maaya has been officially dubbed the theme song for my White Tower Waiting series. It is in Japanese, but find a translation, or ask for one. The lyrics are just to perfect for this moment of their relationship. Will soon edit the previous WTW chapters to have their song lines added at the end, so check them out again._


	51. Five and One : Berry

44. inner strength  
Title: Five and One (Strawberry Version)  
Word Count: 771  
Rating: PG

_**Five days Ichigo really wished he had a different job...**_

1. When the attack fell on the retreating company of Shinigami, the effect was devastating. They were evacuating the wounded by the fastest route possible: easy targets for mindless swarms of hungry hollows.

Ichigo's first instinct was to protect his men and charges by leaping to the front of the assault. As it was, he almost tripped over his vice captain seeming to appear in front of him.

"Get back to the front of the line and lead them to safety!" Rukia snapped at him even as she released a spell at the nearest hollow, blowing it's mask apart.

"And leave you here by yourself?! Don't give me orders!"

"You have a job to do, Kurosaki-taichou." and her cold rejoinder was like a bucket of ice water to his flaring temper. She turned her back to him and faced the hollows, drawing her sword and staring down her opponents alone. He hesitated, but his mind was made up when he heard the panicked screams behind him.

"Don't die."

"Worry about the one's who need it, Ichigo."

He turned away and sprinted to the mass of confusion, taking over and getting them moving. One of the unwounded cadets from his division balked at the order to move out.

"But Kuchiki-fukutaichou--!"

"Is a big girl. Rukia is on her own for now."

2. "Little Ichigo has followed in his father's footsteps! Daddy is so proud!"

"Get away from me you moron!"

"Oh Ichi-nii, what am I supposed to tell my friends...?"

"Just tell them that your brother is a freak."

"Karin-chan!"

"Oi!"

"What? It's true."

"Tsk tsk, no Shinigami son of mine could ever let his guard down like this. Daddy must teach him right!"

"GET OFF OF ME OLD MAN!!!"

"Sit down and eat, Yuzu."

"But Karin-chan..."

"DON'T WORRY, DADDY TEACHES WITH THOUGH LOVE!!"

"**AAARRG!**"

3. They were mocking him, dammit. Gritting his teeth in frustrated determination, Ichigo resolutely turned back to his Calculus exam and made a valiant effort to ignore the ghosts pressed up against the classroom windows making faces at him and his test-taking classmates.

4. "It's her fault I'm here, you know," his hollow told him conversationally. He swung Zangetsu from the hilt-wrappings absently as he eyed Ichigo. "When she gave her powers to you and set everything moving after. I believe I'll eat her first - what do you think?"

Ichigo just hissed at his twisted counterpart even as he desperately sought a way up off his knees.

5. When Ichigo died and made his leisurely trip to Soul Society, he was immediately accosted by Hitsugaya. The fact that he was grinning from ear to ear could not bode well.

"What do you _mean_ I have to do all my paperwork? What paperwork?"

"Every field agent has to do their own paperwork on every hollow killed and soul sent through," he explained, looking quite gleeful. "We've never had the staff on hand to do your work for you, but Kuchiki convinced the council to save it and let you do it when you become a real member of Soul Society."

He was led to one of the larger office rooms, completely crammed with paper stacked everywhere, only one small path to get to the desk (which was also snowed in under paper). Hitsugaya was still grinning like a loon as he handed Ichigo a box of pens. Ichigo himself still could not move.

"When you get through with this, I'll take you to Site B," he told him kindly. "We had to get a second bigger storage room when we ran out of space here two years in."

The box of pens fell with a clatter and groan.

_**...and one that will make him stick it out for years to come. **_

1. "Are they alright?" the boy demanded, defiant and headstrong to the last. Ichigo knew there was a resemblance somewhere. "My little sister and brothers, are they okay?"

"Yes," Ichigo told him firmly. "Everyone else is just fine. My partner is healing them all now." The boy untensed, almost sagging with relief.

"Thank God." he breathed. He looked a little closer at the Shinigami. "Or, thank whatever-you-are, I suppose." Ichigo couldn't stop smirking at him. "...I was supposed to protect them, ya' know? I'm the oldest - that's my job."

Ichigo's throat tightened. "You did." he whispered gently. "You did just fine. They're safe. You did good."

The boy smiled at him, and didn't stop even as he sank into the circle of light as the black butterfly sent him on his way.


	52. Five and One : Death

**28.** silence  
**Title:** Five and One (Death Version)  
**Word Count:** 154  
**Rating:** G

**Five things about Kuchiki Rukia everyone suspected but couldn't prove - **

1. Rukia's faith in Ichigo was unshakable; it was her faith in herself that couldn't hold.

2. After Kaien-dono's death at her hands, she spent _years_ learning the soul transfer. She swore no one would ever put her in such a position again.

3. Rukia used the soul transfer on Ichigo not because of his uncanny resemblance to her late Vice-Captain, but to see if she really could. They were all going to die anyway.

4. The three months Rukia spent hidden in the human world was the longest she had _ever_ been continuously irritated.

5. She knew Ichigo would always come for her, and hoped someday she could forgive him for it.

**- And one thing they just didn't suspect.**

1. Rukia and Ichigo were not in love; their relationship would never have survived on something as illusioned and insubstantial as that.


	53. Sent With Love

**30.** miles apart  
**Title:** Sent With Love  
**Rating:** G  
**Word Count:** 754

_Companion piece to theme 53. cross-dimentional phone bills._

It was growing dark when Rukia finished her latest letter, rattling off the final instructions by rote and sending it off with a flick of her wrist. It hovered for a moment before her (bemused or waiting for more, she wasn't paying enough attention to care) before wandering out the window with an air that screamed more or less "Lost!" Once she'd given it enough time to make it away so it wouldn't come back, she rose from her seat and paced to the window.

It had gotten so quiet since Ichigo and company had gone home on peaceable terms. That was so like him, she supposed; bulled his way into something he could neither understand nor was welcome, picked fights with every single person it was unwise to do so, broke everything deemed less important in pursuit of fixing the one thing that _was_, and raised all-around hell until she found her feet well enough to throw him out on his ass.

That moron, she smiled fondly as she turned back to her desk. He really did require 'round the clock attention. But she was busy cleaning up the monumental mess his most recent tantrum had left _here_, and even being his official nanny didn't mean the universe was pitying enough to share the secret of being in two places at once with her.

But, she might be persuaded to admit privately, there was really only one other reason that she could stand to be here in this place while she just _knew_ he was out there getting into more trouble than anyone else knew how to deal with; as she stood and worked and lived out there, in the ruins her idiot charge had destroyed and left for others to fix, she couldn't help but feel that he had (knowingly or not, odds on the latter) broken what needed to be, so that it could be rebuilt correctly.

Maybe this feeling was the one where _she_ was being rebuilt right, for the first time since everything began to go wrong.

Rukia sits at the desk as she sorts papers, methodical and thoughtful, even as she lets her mind wander to the standing argument waiting for her at home. Nii-sama is still vehemently against her going back to the human world in the near future (closer to forever, if he can get his way as he usually does), but she has always been able to sense the fights she can win, and will just have to hold out until she does. Her brother could keep a promise for eternity, but his grudges were very short lived. Once he realized she wasn't going to change her mind, he'd let it go.

Rukia wasn't a romantic, and not even really a poet, but she sometimes might come across as one for the only real talent she had was a healthy appreciation for Life's little irony's and personal jokes, even when she somehow ended up as the butt of them.

No matter what the foolhardy recruits or her brother thought, she wasn't chasing the shadow of her vice captain. She had followed Kaien-dono because of the ordinary he brought to her life of inconsistency. She followed after Ichigo-baka for the chaos and random he brought to her life of routine. (And it was definitely "followed after", bailing him out when he did something stupid, and cleaning him up when his something stupid worked.)

When you got right down to it, really Ichigo and Kaien had very little in common.

So until she got her feet more firmly under her, until she finished rebuilding, until she won her argument, until she re-found the routine that needed to be broken, Rukia would set aside all her worry about him doing something stupid with her so many miles and a world away (after all, she told herself, if he managed to break reality or the Foundations of Heaven, she'd certainly know about it) and sent him letters with every hell-butterfly she could get her hands on; all with the same explicit instructions not to leave his room once they arrived. She reasoned that with the butterflies that had her words to curse at and shove in her closet (it was the only place he could be keeping him at this point with his spiritually attuned sister around) he wouldn't be left to miss her and get into trouble because of his sulking.

She was so thoughtful sometimes that Ichigo just couldn't appreciate it, but she was used to that.


	54. White Tower Waiting5

**97. **unlady-like behavior  
**Title: **White Tower Waiting5 (Doppelganger)  
**Word Count: **463  
**Rating: **PG-13

Rukia didn't much act like a damsel.

Not that she _was_ one, he reminded himself, it was just that she always seemed so not girly that he usually forgot that she was female, and not totally immune to the womanly urges. She smacked him around a lot, and was so busy kicking the crap out of him that he thought she herself forgot most of the time. And so this led him to consider one of two options.

1) The girl in all white before him was Rukia whose female hormones have caught up to her all at once and - being the idiot she was - she had no idea what to do with them.

or

2) The girl before him is NOT Rukia, but in fact some look-alike that Rukia replaced with herself and is off terrorizing some poor unsuspecting victim. He would then have to track her down a _second_ time and get mad at her for leading him on this wild chase before dragging her back (to save the poor unsuspecting victim) and move on with life.

Ichigo really wanted to lean for the second, but he doubted even the resourceful as all hell Rukia could find such a convincing physical clone. And when she looked at him, he knew that even Rukia could never find a way to copy her eyes. So he felt something heavy and bitter drop somewhere inside, because whatever could make her like this, make her make _that_ face...he wasn't sure he could handle.

He couldn't look at her, so he fixed his gaze somewhere over to his right and told her he was here. The look didn't go away. If anything, it got worse.

And he couldn't stand it, that look, those eyes, the way she said his name, and he just exploded, snapping at this lost little girl who looked like someone he knew. And she exploded back, and there was a moment of relief before the rushing anger that was embraced for it's longed-for familiarity. They went off at each other in one of their typical screaming matches. He made faces to taunt her, and she fumed nastily while thinking uncharitable thoughts. (It didn't occur to him they were acting like a pair of children, but that was what they are.)

The nostalgic smile she graced him with, tinged with sadness, was more than he could take. It made him want to _do_ something about it - somehow make the violent and loud and ungirly Rukia return. But it was hard, because he didn't know whose fault it really was that she was reduced to this - feminine and weak and teary; Soul Society's, Byakauya's, or his own.

_**(If you call unfinished words a story  
**_**_Can unreachable words be called a dream?)  
__-Loop, Sakamoto Maaya_**


	55. Priorities

**46.** lost

**Title:** Priorities (1 of 2)

**Word Count: **830

**Rating: **PG (language)

Rukia was lost.

Not that she would ever let anyone (Ichigo) know it, but she had a horrible sense of direction. With Hollows, she had trained herself to the point where she could pick up the faintest spirit trail, but then she would just follow that. If for some reason she lost the trail, she would be hopelessly turned around. Her superiors didn't know she spent all that time on missions not tracking or fighting the Hollows, but finding her way back.

She was standing at some sort of forested crossroads, what looked like hundreds of paths trailing off into the trees in front and to both sides. She turned slowly to find the same thing behind her, and no discernible path she could have taken to get there.

The air was heavy. How had she gotten here? Chasing a Hollow? She thought so, but there had been orange hair next to her, and she could remember concrete and glass-steel and asphalt. Had she left the stone and gone into the woods? Alone? Trying to remember made her head hurt.

She was vaguely aware that she should be somewhere, but she was torn as to where. Some of the paths felt right to part of her, but not right to others and they refused to both pick one.

Growing tired with the indecision, she picked a road at random and began down it. Four steps in and pain seemed to explode in her chest and right arm. Startled, she leapt backward to the center and stood, confused. The pain had vanished as she landed, but a faint phantom ache remained where it had been, an unpleasant reminder.

'_Not that way then.'_

A little bemused, she looked around again until she was facing another path. Most of her seemed to think this was a good direction, even if another, much smaller part was shrieking in protest.

The first steps were a relief . The air lifted and the leftover pain faded completely. She started feeling lightheaded, but in a nice way, like hot water washing over sore muscles.

After ten steps she paused to glance back fuzzily, something she had forgotten half-surfacing to drift across her mind. The road seemed to stretch much longer than the ten steps she'd taken. Had it been more?

The half remembered thought tugged more insistently. What had she been thinking about? She couldn't quite remember, but it was just _there_…

Part of the thought solidified, enough to hold the rest of her mind. She turned to fast, her limbs suddenly very heavy. A few unsteady steps back the way she'd come, and more of the thought came. Slowly, she dragged her protesting body back to the start.

Cautiously, she looked around for a third time. Her sense of direction was as little help as ever, but she wasn't looking with that.

Her new sense told her the second trail on her left was it. Without hesitation, she bolted down it as fast as she could manage. Pain burned in her neck and shot down her spine, concentrating on her right shoulder and arm and a jagged line just under her ribs on the right side. Still, she knew she was right, and kept going, pushing blindly until she felt like she'd tripped and fell forward, closing her eyes.

When Rukia opened her eyes again, she was on her back, laying on strangely sticky asphalt and in considerable pain. Steel and glass rose at the edges of her vision, ringing a wet sky threatening rain. There was a voice she knew shouting in an otherwise somber silence.

"Ichigo, shut the hell up." She snapped as best she could, feeling bile and something metallic rise in the back of her throat, forcing her to choke it back down in the suddenly shocked silence.

Only seconds passed and there were warm hands cautiously on her shoulder. Uraharra and Orihime came into her line of sight on the left, Yourichi and Chad on her right, all of them stunned to see her watching them through bleary eyes. Ichigo's face appeared upside down, mouth working but no sound coming out for how noisy he'd been a second ago.

"Kuchiki-san," Uraharra said softly, as Orihime squeaked, and her hands flew to the flower pins to summon her healing pair. "You were dead. You _should_ be dead."

Rukia flicked him half a glance and made a non-committal grunt as the flowers hurried into position, then turned her gaze back to Ichigo and just gave him a look. "I told you I was going to kick your ass if you charged in recklessly. You think I'd just die and let you off the hook? When I can feel my arms again, you're dead."

And his utterly bemused look (mirrored by everyone else) was supremely satisfying as the light of Orihime's healing spell washed over her. Her sense of direction may have sucked, but her Beat The Shit Out Of Ichigo Radar never failed.


	56. Angel's Voice Rising

**6. **death and dying  
**Title:** Angel's Raising Voice  
**Word Count: **865  
**Rating: **PG-13

"Ichigo!"

They were in the middle of a fight, damn her, and she still found time to scold him.

"Ichigo, damn it, don't you dare! If you do something reckless, I swear I'll kill you!"

"Pay attention to your own fight, woman!" he barked back at her, cutting down one of the Hollows cornering Inoue and moving on to the next. Somewhere to his left he could see Yourichi helping Chad as Uraharra moved to intercept a new group of Hollows closing on them.

It was all very routine. A few more opponents than was usual, perhaps, but nothing strange.

Then everything changed so fast he couldn't understand until it was over.

A knot of Hollows had slipped past Uraharra, leaping for him. Off balance and caught by surprise, he should have jumped back for distance. Instead, however, he charged _forward_ to meet the challenge.

He could hear Rukia screaming something else, but he had stopped listening. About to meet the first of the Hollows, he was unprepared for the blow to his side.

It was only much later did he discern what must have happened. A Hollow he did not see in his haste had crept into his blind side and made a lunge. When Rukia's yell had failed to warn him, she took the strike from the Hollow and it slammed her into him, sending all three sprawling from the force in a heap until a careful strike from Inoue killed the offender.

He sat up painfully and in that moment everything stopped and he was only aware of the hard asphalt, of the warm and fragile weight and the hot, sticky wetness it was spilling all over his side and the pavement.

Shaking hands rolled her over onto her back slowly, frightened eyes taking in the red staining black robes and porcelain skin, puddleing slowly in the cracks in the street, and beginning to cover his hands. Ichigo thought he was yelling for Orihime, but he couldn't hear, and so couldn't be certain.

The moment the other girl reached Rukia's other side everything became a blur. Snatches of white masks and black blood snapped before his eyes before the images all settled and he was standing alone in the street, clutching Zangetsu and trembling with exhaustion and something oddly like fear.

Turning himself forcefully, he heard Zangetsu striking the ground, though he didn't recall letting go. And then it didn't matter, because he could see her, and gods the red looked like it had spread much farther than before …

"Rukia." He called, unaware that his voice was shaking as he hurried forward on unsteady legs. "Rukia, get up. I swear, lying down on the job, and you call _me_ an idiot slacker…"

"Ichigo." Uraharra called gently as he neared. The shopkeeper was suddenly at his side, Yourichi at the other, as Chad went to the weeping Orihime. "She can't get up, Ichigo."

"Can't get up?" He repeated, then suddenly was irrationally angry. "What the fuck do you mean she can't get up? If she's managed to hurt herself so bad she can't walk then Orihime can heal her. I don't want to carry her heavy ass home." _Please no, I can't do that, I can't take only part of her home, not just what's left of her home…_

"She's gone." Yourichi's voice was quiet and struggling, like it wasn't sure if it should be impassive or compassionate. "There was just to much damage. She couldn't be healed. She's de-"

"_NO_." At that moment he didn't care that he was becoming hysterical, that he was yelling at people who probably didn't deserve it; they were there and convenient and he couldn't hold it back any more. "Don't you _dare_ say things like that! She's not dead! She's going to get up and she's going to kick me and say something snarky and be fine!"

Neither Uraharra or Yourichi backed away from his furious tirade, though Chad placed his hands on Inoue's shoulders as she recoiled from his wrath. They were all utterly silent as they let him scream, as the only voice that would (always) dare to stop him would never rise again.

"She's going to stand up and I'm gonna yell at her for that and drag her back to the house and she's going to be _fine_ and DON'T YOU DAY SHE'S _GONE_, DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT HER IN PAST TENSE BECAUSE SHE'S _FINE-_"

Somewhere through his fury, he finally heard the angel speak in the silence. "Ichigo, shut the hell up."

Like everyone else, he could only jump to her side, place one hand cautiously on her shoulder, and feel her life. From far away, he heard Uraharra tell her she should be dead, _had_ been dead. Angel of Death gave him the barest glance, ignoring his 'dying' idiocy, and turned back to him. Crystal clear, he heard what he'd been waiting for her to say. "I told you I was going to kick your ass if you charged in recklessly. You think I'd just die and let you off the hook? When I can feel my arms again, you're dead."

And right then, he knew everything was fine.


End file.
